History of the Potato
The potato crop belongs
to a number of american crops like maize and bean that
have been introduced to Europe and other continents
in the last 5 centuries.
There are more than 160
wild potato species, and most of them contain high levels
of alcaloids. The first edible potatoes are considered
to have been cultivated 4000 years ago in Peru. The
south american Indians were in fact able to select alcaloid-free
potato varieties, the results of which is still seen
today.
The first cultivated
potato species were diploid (some of them are still
cultivated in South America). The development of the
modern varieties was related to the spontaneous occurence
of tetraploid species that were superior in yield. Almost
all current varieties are autotetraploid.
The introduction of potatoes
to Europe happened at two independant instances: around
1570 in Spain, and around 1590 in England. However,
the large-scale cultivation of the crop began only in
the beginning of the 19th century. Initially, the crop
was used as a medicinal plant and grown by pharmacists,
in Spain in particular. It was later introduced to other
parts of Europe by merchants and kings, who encouraged
the cultivation of this efficient plant to increase
local agricultural production. The successful introduction
of this new crop did not only require changes in the
dietary habits of the people, but also a biological
adaptation of the crop to a new climate. In fact, the
potato plant being originally adapted to short day conditions
of the tropical highlands, it would yield very little
under the long summer days in Europe. Breeding over
more than 150 years led to plants tolerating long day
conditions. The modern breeding of potatoes began approximately
in 1780, where crossings were performed between local
varieties. At the beginning of the 19th century, the
introduction of new potato germplasm, especially from
Chile, contributed highly to the breeding of modern
varieties. Towards the end of the last century, there
was already a large array of breeding varieties available
to the breeders. However, because of the need for new
resistance genes against pests and diseases, the 20th
century brought about the use of a large population
of wild- and cultivated potato species from South America
for backcrossings into European varieties. The potatoes
of today in Europe are largely the result of the intensive
breeding programs of the 19th century, but have benefitted
greatly from the improvements in breeding techniques
of the 20th century to improve traits like disease resistance,
tolerance to environmental factors, etc. |
|