Monica L. Parker
International Scientist May 2024
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has immense potential for potato production. MENA refers to the MENA member counties of the multi-lateral platform along with Mali, Niger, Sudan – north African nations bordering MENA member countries with similar growing conditions. Vast regions within MENA have a dry winter season from November to February/March that is blessed with ideal conditions for high quality and high-yielding production of potato. Day temperatures range from 20 to 30°C, with night temperatures consistently dropping to 18°C and below for good tuber set and bulking. The impeccable solar radiation is the exciting part, essentially cloudless skies with moderate temperatures throughout the day providing optimum conditions for growth. A dry winter season coupled with sandy soils that cover vast areas within MENA for desert-like potato production can mean low disease pressures, and conducive to high yields and high quality tubers.
The winter cropping season throughout MENA is largely irrigated, with farmers using irrigation resources for commercial crops, such as wheat, alfafa in addition to potato. Large-scale 50 ha pivots to drip lines and sprinklers provide irrigation to diverse profiles of farmers throughout MENA. Where water sources and management serve sustainable irrigation, selecting potato as a crop to devote for using irrigation water makes smart sense. Potatoes use water efficiently, producing more food (calories, protein and nutrients) per unit water than other staple crops. The dry winter conditions coupled with good irrigation management can greatly reduce disease pressure in winter crops.
Notably, the growing conditions have been observed to accelerate maturity compared to the African highlands where rain-fed potato dominates which is subject to much cloud cover. Varieties having a 100 to 120 day maturity in the African highlands had growth much accelerated in an informal trial in the desert of Omdurman, outside of Khartoum, Sudan (Fig. 1).
The private sector and government agencies have responded to the clear potential of potato by investing in seed and market production systems, and governments prioritizing the crop for development. One success story emerging from Jordon is Technoseeds, a pioneer company that began producing seed potato only 2 years ago, starting with 240 m2 growing 4,000 m2 and still growing with strategy to expand to field production of seed to better serve local and regional markets. Their market network for minitubers extends to Egypt, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Yemen. In Iraq, the Ministry of Agriculture in partnership with The International Trade Centre identified potato as a top crop for development potential and developed the Iraq National Potato Strategy. Subsequent support programs and investments are emerging from and alongside this strategy. Diverse stakeholders in Yemen cling to potato as a solution to the dire food insecurity (Fig. 2). Yemen ranks 123 out of the 125 countries in the 2023 Global Hunger Index.
The versatility of potato is extending towards MENA region, bringing economic and food security benefits from household to national levels. The unparalleled growing conditions offer a comparative advantage to drive continued public and private sector investment in potato to realise the returns that potato has to offer.
Figure 1. Potatoes 30 days after planting during the winter season in the desert of Omdurman, outside of Khartoum, Sudan (left) and 59 days after planting well sprouted seed tubers (right).
Figure 2. Screenhouse production of apical cuttings of potato from tissue culture plants at Dhamar University (left). Minituber production at Agricultural Research and Extension from cuttings produced by Dhamar University (center left). Field performance trials of new potato varieties from the International Potato Center at Dhamar First Centre (center right). Harvest of Unica at 82 days (right).
