中国马铃薯从济荒作物到主粮之变迁

Transition of potato from a famine relief crop to staple food in China

马铃薯明末清初仅在民间零散种植,对寒苦瘠薄之地的适应,使之在清中后期成为西南及其毗邻地区平民救灾度荒之粮,为清政府在西南实施和巩固“改土归流”的民族治理制度提供了大量移民安生立命的粮食保障。其高产特性使发展马铃薯成为抗战时期保障民食军需的重要措施。1950年以来,在国民经济发展计划中马铃薯种植面积、总产和产值持续增长,马铃薯对主粮作物产值贡献的比例平均为其所占面积比例的2倍以上。马铃薯产业在保障国家粮食安全、农业增效以及满足需求侧对食品多元化和健康需求方面,将进一步发挥其独特的生物学优势,彰显其重要的战略地位。

Potatoes were scattered only in isolated mountainous areas in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties.Its adaptation to the cold and barren land made potatoes a food for the civilians to relieve the famine in the southwestern China and its adjacent areas in the middle and late Qing Dynasty,which also provided a large number of immigrants with food security for the Qing government to implement and consolidate the national governance system of“replacement of chieftains with centrally-appointed non-hereditary officials”in the southwestern China.Its high-yield characteristics make the development of potatoes an important measure to ensure the supplies for the civilian and army during the Anti-Japanese War.Since 1950,the area,production and output value of the potato have continued to increase as the national economic development plans implemented.Its contribution to the total output value of staple crops is averagely above two times of its cultivation proportion.The potato industry will further take its unique biological advantages and highlight its important strategic position in ensuring national food security,agricultural efficiency and meeting demand-side food diversification and health needs.