Welcome to the World Potato Atlas, an ongoing project sponsored by the International Potato Center (Centro Internacional de la Papa, or CIP
) to provide a forum for information exchange about potato cultivation and use around the developing world, presented in a wider context of international agricultural development.
Each country chapter is organized into several sections, including:
- History and Overview;
- Geography and Production Zones;
- Production Systems and Constraints;
- Varieties and Seed Systems;
- Consumption, Storage, and Marketing;
- Research Facilities and Contacts.
Although the atlas is intended primarily for people with a general interest in agricultural development, links to other websites address topics of more specialized research. (Some are included as relevant in country chapters. Others are listed under Potato Info Links.) We have attempted to provide the most authoritative and complete information available for each country, but much of this information is available only as "gray literature." Unfortunately, this is most often the case for countries facing the greatest poverty, hence of greatest interest to CIP.
Only a few countries are included in this version of the atlas, clearly not all where the potato is an important crop. Instead, we have tried to provide more thorough treatment of a representative sample, with primary attention to those where potato can help meet the food security and economic development needs of the world's poorest people.
The selection of countries was determined primarily by CIP's Vision, an exercise on the part of CIP to prioritize research efforts and their regional applications consistent with the United Nations Millennium Development Targets. In a few cases, a chapter provides an example of a larger region, for example Tajikistan of Central Asia and Armenia of the Caucasus. The previous version of the atlas, partially included here as the Atlas Archives, includes many additional countries and is available mostly for historic background information.
Since the release of the first World Potato Atlas, CIP has become actively involved with sweetpotato and several other root and tuber crops. The World Sweetpotato Atlas is a new effort reflecting this focus.
The potential benefit of this project depends on its active use as a means of information exchange. Further contributions and dialogue are very welcome (Contact us
), and any contributors will be acknowledged. We hope that this project will continue to grow with the ongoing participation of clients like you.
THE WORLD POTATO ATLAS