Potato, popularly known as ‘The king of vegetables’, is a major food crop,

grown in more than 100 countries in the world. At present, China, Russia, India, Poland and the U.S.A. contribute to a major share of the total world production.
Potato is one of the main commercial crops grown in India and has emerged as fourth most important food crop after rice, wheat and maize. Because of the dry matter, edible energy and edible protein content of potato makes it a nutritionally superior vegetable as well as being a stable food throughout the world.
According to Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy, Guyana is on track to develop a successful potato industry and the need to import this commodity should be eliminated within the next five years.
This is welcome news as it would save our country a tremendous amount of foreign exchange which could be channelled into other areas.
He noted  that while Guyana’s food import bill is approximately US$250 per capita, the global average is US$66. However, he said that in the Caribbean region the comparable figures are between US$500 to US$1,000 of food imports.
According to him, the Government of Guyana and the Agriculture Ministry in particular, are actively pursuing ways in which to reduce this bill.
“I believe that Guyana could use its foreign currency reserves in a better way than to import food that we could either grow here or produce here or that we could do without,” he said.
The minister is correct, as there is no reason why we should be importing food that could be grown here.
Many years ago, a previous government embarked on a so-called import substitute policy, banning a myriad of imported foodstuff under the guise of stimulating local production of food and utilising local substitutes. Unfortunately, the result was disastrous as we experienced a terrible food shortage, the worst in our country’s history.
This outcome was obvious because while the intention behind the import substitute policy was good, its implementation was miserable. In order to successfully implement policy, the groundwork and foundation have to be laid. In this regard, it should have been ensured that measures were in place to produce local substitutes in adequate quantities at an affordable price for the populace. Unfortunately, this was not the case and the result was an acute food shortage.
Of course it is suspected that the import substitute policy had to do more with latent political and economic reasons than with stimulating agriculture.
For one, the economy was in such a bad shape that foreign exchange was unavailable to import food.
The manner in which phasing out importation of some food is being pursued now is the way to go. That is, we begin producing them in commercial quantities first, and then stop their importation. This is a logical and sensible approach.
With respect to potatoes, because of their versatility, it is a staple not only for Guyanese but in the rest of the Region and farther afield. Therefore, to deprive people of potatoes would be nothing less than stupidity.
What is clear is that potatoes could be grown in Guyana but the parts of Guyana, like Regions 7 & 8, where it could be grown on a commercial basis are landlocked and therefore transportation is the decisive factor.
Developing adequate road networks in these regions may take a while so producing potatoes on a commercial basis there may have to be put on hold. However, it is also possible to grow potatoes on a commercial basis on the coastland and this is where our trump card lies. In this regard, the Ministry of Agriculture will now be cultivating potatoes on one-acre plots of land in Regions 2, 3, 4 and 6 and if this is successful, Dr  Ramsammy said the ministry will then move to the next step to produce the commodity on a larger scale for commercial purposes, which will contribute to the reduction of the food import bill.
“It will take years before we can eliminate import, but we believe that we can now produce potato that is of comparable quality to the imported potato,” he stated.
He related that while potatoes will be cultivated on land owned by the Ministry, private farmers can also do so with supervision from the Agriculture Ministry. He further advised that one of the requirements for growing potatoes on the coast is good irrigation, and for this, new techniques such as drip irrigation and shade technology have to be implemented.
But apart from reducing our food import bill, growing potatoes here has the potential of being another export food item as it is not grown in the Caribbean region. So if cultivation is successful, we would have another potential foreign exchange earner.