Asian countries are seeing potatoes as their possible salvation as they scramble to feed their people at reasonable prices in the future in a region where the population is estimated to soar by some 35 percent to 4.9 billion by 2025.
Food security is vital in the region as many governments fear unrest if food staple prices keep going up.
India has said it wants to double potato production in the next five to 10 years. China, a huge rice consumer, has become the world's top potato grower. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the potato is expanding more than any other crop right now.
Potatoes are a great source of complex carbohydrates, which release their energy slowly and they have only five percent of the fat content of wheat.
When boiled potatoes have more protein than corn and nearly twice the calcium, according to the Potato Center in Peru. They are also rich in vitamins, iron, potassium and zinc.
"Rice and potato contain almost similar quantity of calories. But potatoes ... are rich in Vitamin C and other food values. So nutritionally, potato can be a real good substitute for rice," said S.K. Roy, a nutrition expert in Dhaka.
BIGGEST EVER CROP
This year, Bangladesh produced its biggest ever potato crop of over eight million tonnes, three million tonnes more than last year.
But the country lacks warehouses to store the potatoes, which spoil easily, and officials fear much of the stock will go to waste even as people starve and suffer from malnutrition because they can't afford rice and refuse to turn to potatoes.
"We cannot let the potatoes, which provide us a strong food backing in this period when food grains are short in supply and high in prices, rot and perish. So let us all take more potato and make it a viable substitute for other foods," army chief General Moeen U. Ahmed told the crowd at the potato festival.
Officials say Bangladesh can preserve only 2.2 million tonnes of potato in 300 existing cold storages across the country.
"It means we will have about 3 million tonnes left ... This is huge, we have to consume it," said Harunur Rashid, the managing director of Canteen Stores Department, a supermarket chain run by the army which organized the Dhaka potato festival in a bid to popularize potatoes among the masses.
Leading local chefs whipped up dishes with potatoes for the thousands of people who attended the festival last week. One even made ice-cream from crushed potato, sugar and ice.
"I am just amazed to see and taste so many dishes," said university student Rafia Akther. "I never thought potatoes could make them all," she said, with a smile.
Potatoes are used in curries but these are usually served with rice. It is difficult to convince people that they can eat a meal based on potatoes without any rice at all.
"Normally we use potato to make curry mixed with vegetables and fish. We don't eat it every day but take it quite often," said Salahuddin Ahmed, a farmer and small businessman.
"But eating potato as the main dish? We never thought of it before!".
($1 = 68.5 taka)
