Global food security, contributions from sustainable potato agri-food systems

Abstract

In the coming decades, feeding the expanded global population nutritiously and sustainably will require substantial improvements to the global food system worldwide. The main challenge will be to produce more food with the same or fewer resources. Food security has four dimensions: food availability, food access, food use and quality, and food stability. Among several other food sources, the potato crop is one that can help match all these requirements worldwide due to its highly diverse distribution pattern, and its current cultivation and demand, particularly in developing countries with high levels of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. After an overview of the current situation of global hunger, food security, and agricultural growth, followed by a review of the importance of the potato in the current global food system and its role played as a food security crop, this chapter analyzes and discusses how potato research and innovation can contribute to sustainable agri-food systems with reference to food security indicators. It concludes with a discussion about the challenges for sustainable potato cropping considering the needs to increase productivity in developing countries while promoting better resource management and optimization.