Beijing's farm base serves up healthy dose of potato conferences
DATE:2015-08-05 SOURCE:China Daily
Experts visit the potato museum at the recently opened International Potato Center for Asia-Pacific in Yanqing. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
The 2015 World Potato Congress and three other major agriculture conferences are currently being held in Yanqing county, Beijing's main agricultural base.
About 3,000 researchers, entrepreneurs, government officials and growers in the potato industry from more than 30 countries have shown up for the world's top potato event, presented by the World Potato Congress Inc., based in Canada, every three years since 1993.
Apart from the three-day congress, Yanqing is also hosting three other activities: The China International Potato Industry Expo, the China Potato Congress, and a seminar on potatoes that discusses its use as a staple food. All of the events take place from July 25 to 30.
This year, the Chinese government released a national food strategy that aimed to make the tuber a staple crop to address the nation's growing demand for food and its dire water shortages. Potatoes need less water to grow than China's three other staple crops: Rice, wheat and corn.
The WPC, which features exchanges of technologies, trade cooperation and exhibitions, has been held in Canada, the U.K., the Netherlands, China's Yunnan province, the United States and New Zealand.
China has its own congress on the potato industry, called the China Potato Congress, which has been held annually since 2006. Agricultural trade is a major component of the conference.
It evolved out of an annual conference from the Crop Science Society of China, which dates to 1998.
The event aims to promote the sustainable development of the potato industry in China through research, communication about agricultural technologies and marketing.
The meeting has been held in the main potato production regions of China, which includes Beijing, Shaanxi and Heilongjiang provinces, as well as the Ningxia Hui and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions.
Participants in a cooking contest show various dishes made from potatoes, categorized as a staple crop in a government food strategy in July. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
The China International Potato Industry Expo was launched in 2010 and has attracted more than 200 enterprises and thousands of visitors from home and abroad.
Expo officials said the event has played an important role in strengthening industrial cooperation between Chinese and foreign enterprises.
The International Seminar on Potato Staple Food and Industry Development discusses developments in the potato food industry, the nutritional value of the tuber, how to sustainably grow, process and consume it, and the opportunities and challenges within the industry.
The potato seminar is the first international seminar after the Chinese government designated the potato as an additional staple crop.
The event will have various exhibitions on ways to cook potatoes and inform attendees how dietary structures can be improved by eating potatoes as a staple food.
Yanqing county is hosting this year's World Potato Congress after county officials attending the eighth WPC in Britain in 2012 expressed their wishes to host this year's event. On July 22, 2013, after a long vetting process, WPC Inc.'s inspection team agreed to allow Yanqing the right to host the congress.
The events cover all aspects of the industry, from genetic breeding, production and processing, to sales and promotion, and developing international cooperation and exchanges about the development of the industry.
Many experts will attend the event, including Barbara Wells, director general of the International Potato Center; Percy Misika, the U.N. food and agriculture representative in China; Cedric Porter, managing editor of World Potato Markets; Jin Liping, chief scientist of China's Potato Research System; and Ke Bingsheng, president of China Agricultural University.
The China International Potato Industry Expo has attracted 195 enterprises this year, 42 of which are international companies such as Bayer, DuPont, Syngenta and BASF. The expo has nearly 450 booths in a 15,000-square-meter exhibition hall.
The WPC is also a bridge of cooperation between Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, a neighboring city to the north of Hebei province.
Yanqing and Zhangjiakou signed a cooperation framework agreement during the WPC. In the deal, Yanqing will test and promote its potato breeds in the agricultural parks of Zhangjiakou.
Hengde Jiahui, an equity investment company in Beijing, said it has established a "potato trade center' in Yanqing that provides an Internet-based platform on the trade and pricing of potatoes.
Yanqing a hub for tuber R&D
Beijing's Yanqing county, the biggest potato producing county in China, is also the site of the nation's leading research center on the crop.
The International Potato Center for Asia-Pacific in Yanqing, which was recently opened, cements the county's status as a research and development hub for the tuber in the Asia-Pacific region.
Working with agricultural institutes and universities in Beijing, Yanqing boasts the nation's strongest resources for potato research and development.
Yanqing, which produces 10 percent of China's potatoes, links Beijing with the nation's other potato production regions, such as Hebei and Gansu provinces as well as the Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions, through three major highways, two more of which are currently being built for the 2019 World Horticultural Expo to be held in Yanqing.
The county's advantage in potato research stems from its close proximity to Beijing's transport hubs. It is a 50-minute drive from Beijing Capital International Airport, allowing the county to have close contact with academics and logistics centers.
Yanqing is also dedicated to protecting its natural environment. In 2008, it was awarded the honorary title of a national eco-friendly county, and it is among the first ecological civilization model regions in China. It has a 56.6 percent forest coverage rate, markedly higher than the 20 percent national average. Its air quality is the best among all districts and counties in Beijing.