Anybody who has been to Peru or a Peruvian restaurant anywhere else in the world knows that the potato is the most important ingredient in the Peruvian cuisine. However besides being a popular ingredient, potatoes now have a whole genebank dedicated to them where their genetic diversity is studied to characterize each potato’s main traits and conserve potato species. To someone like me, who is used to going to the supermarket and having the choice between a normal and a sweet potato, this might seem a little ridiculous. Of the total 4500 landraces of potatoes known to Peruvians, approximately 2500 are native to Peru. Furthermore, the potato originates from Peru, where it was first domesticated in the Andes mountain region over 8000 years ago. Therefore, it is not very surprising that unlike a supermarket in Amsterdam, a Peruvian supermarket has a whole aisle devoted to potatoes. To protect and innovate the future of the potato, the “CIP International Potato Center: A CGIAR Research Center” was founded near the capital of Peru: Lima.
Preserving Biodiversity