Potato Geography

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Potato Geography
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The potato was domesticated
in the proximity of Lake Titicaca, near
the current border between Peru and Bolivia. For
nearly 500 years it has crossed continents and
oceans, reaching countless new homes and taking
root in cultures and communities around the
world.
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Lake Titicaca Potato heartland
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Chuño, partially frozen potatoes http//www.redepa
pa.org/chuno.html
Chuño for sale, Bolivian market http//www.cipotat
o.org/news/images/chuno_presentacion_platos.jpg
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Based on the book The Potato Treasure of the
Andes. Multimedia presentation designed by
Milton Hidalgo, Training and Communications
Department, International Potato Center.
December 2001, Lima, Peru For more information
on the potato and its history, see
http//www.cipotato.org/Market/Potbook/potbook.htm
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1500s
1600s
1700s
1800s
1900s
1500s
Andes
Belgium
Spain
Italy
FROM
TO
UK, Spain
Austria
Italy
Belgium
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1500s
1600s
1700s
1800s
1900s
1600s
Portugal
UK
Netherlands
Bermuda
FROM
Bermuda
China
Virginia
India
TO
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1500s
1600s
1700s
1800s
1900s
1700s
India
France
Italy
Spain
FROM
Nepal
Denmark
Yugoslavia
Philippines
TO
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Frederick the Great
Antoine Augustine Parmentier
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1500s
1600s
1700s
1800s
1900s
1800s
UK
France
China
USSR
FROM
Egypt
Lesotho
Thailand
Greece
TO
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1500s
1600s
1700s
1800s
1900s
1900s
Belgium
France
Germany
Netherlands
FROM
Rwanda
New Caledonia
Nigeria
Saudi Arabia
TO
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Golden NematodeGlobodera rostochiensis

• established as a pest species in Newfoundland
• Newfoundland potatoes cannot be exported to the
  mainland
• cars are supposed to be washed before being
  loaded onto ferries
• Plants infested with nematodes produce fewer and
  smaller potatoes
• Cysts may survive up to 20 years before hatching

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Golden Nematode Cysts
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Why Here?

• common in many parts of Russia, central Europe,
  eastern Africa, and South America
• likes moist summers, relatively mild winters, or
  where snow cover slows freezing
• parts of Newfoundland (Avalon Peninsula) central
  Saanich Pen., Vancouver Island, BC Long Island,
  NY and central México
• Why only in these places?

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Potatoes to México

• spread of potatoes to North America depended upon
  their transport by Europeans
• potatoes as a food supply to Méxican port of
  Veracruz
• Golden Nematode was transferred from Basque
  coast to new breeding area in México

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Potatoes to North America

• England obtained potatoes from Spanish sources,
  from different areas of South America
• early 1600s, potatoes, but not the Golden
  Nematode, introduced to Bermuda, then to Virginia
  (1613)
• potatoes without Golden Nematode arrived by
  mid-1600s in coastal North America
• Basque Potatoes brought by Dutch to Nieuw
  Amsterdam (now New York)
• grown in the suitable soil of Long Island
• Golden Nematode had traveled with the Basque
  potatoes to The Netherlands, and now was
  established on Long Island

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Potatoes to Maritime Canada

• not popular with Acadian farmers
• France failed to introduce potatoes to colonies
• Prince Edward Island ranked last in agricultural
  potential by French govt. in early 1750s
• Brit. Gov. Lawrence introduced potatoes to
  Halifax Lunenburg (1760) later to PEI in 1771
• predominantly from New England
• do not appear to have carried the Golden Nematode
  with them.

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Potatoes to Newfoundland

• uncertain exactly when potatoes arrived
• perhaps directly from coastal Basque Provinces,
  or
• by Irish, who originally obtained potatoes from
  Basque Provinces
• Basque Provinces have climates suitable for the
  Golden Nematode
• Golden Nematode appears to have arrived with the
  original importation of potatoes into eastern
  Newfoundland
• remains as a problem for potato growers here

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Subsequent Movements

• Irish Potato Famine in 1847 resulted from
  importation of blight, Phytophthora infestans,
  from New York in 1845
• 1848, blight re-crossed Atlantic to St. Johns
• spread of Golden Nematode to Saanich Peninsula,
  Vancouver Island, BC, in 1965

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In 2005, the Maritimes, St. Lawrence Valley,
and western Canada each accounted for
approximately equal shares of Canadian Potato
production
Current Potato Production
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Varieties
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Relative decline in PEI and NB drier summers,
overproduction, low prices, competition,
blocking of imports by the USA resulting from
discovery of PVYN virus in late 1990s
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Potato production is declining in NL Competition
is main factor