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Potatoes have a unique place in the British diet. Each
person eats about 130 kg of potatoes per year. Boiled, baked, roasted, mashed, and chipped, the humble spud is a familiar, well-loved part of mealtimes.
Surprisingly, although there are about 500 varieties of potatoes, only 80
varieties are cultivated commercially.
But, climate change could cause UK potato crops to struggle
for years to come, researchers have warned.
A quarter of Britain's potato crop is grown in Scottish
fields. However, household favorites such as Ayrshire and Maris Piper are said
to be at risk as temperatures rise.
The James Hutton Institute (JHI) in Invergourrie, just
outside Dundee, is now trying to find varieties that will grow in warmer
conditions. The annual retail value of potato products across the UK is over £2
billion.
Prof Lesley Torrance, the JHI research organization's
executive director of science, warned that climate change posed an
"existential threat" to the potato industry.
She said there was a need to quickly develop new varieties that can cope with rising temperatures.
The institute is using an experimental farm to study how
crops grow and has a large collection of potato species from around the world.
Prof Torrance told BBC Scotland's Landward that climate
change was a major problem.
"Potatoes are a cool-climate crop," she said.
"And of course, climate change predictions are that we're going to have
hotter and drier summers. So that's a big problem."
Crop simulation research by the institute has modeled what
is called plant heat stress days.
This is when temperatures reach above 25C, making crops such
as potatoes change their purpose from growing to instead combating stress from
heat and reducing yields.
"By 2030 there will be maybe as many as 60 heat stress
days in the growing season," Prof Torrance explained.
"That's two months, and so that will have major
impacts, mostly in the south and east of England, but Scotland is also
impacted."
See details.
Source:
Online/SZK
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