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Here are Africa’s Top Irish Potato Producing Countries

BY Soko Directory Team · June 28, 2018 08:06 am

Potato production in Sub-Saharan Africa has more than doubled with 70 percent of that growth concentrated in eastern Africa.

Despite these gains, potato yields of small-scale farmers in the region fall far short of their potential due mostly to a potent combination of inadequate supplies of high-quality seed and smallholders’ limited awareness of better seed management practices.

Until the early 1990s, most potatoes were grown and consumed in Europe, North America and countries of the former Soviet Union.

Potato arrived late in Africa, around the turn of the 20th century. In recent decades, production has been in the continual expansion, rising from 2 million tonnes in 1960 to over 30 million tonnes in 2013.

Potato production is well-suited to the highlands of Africa and also to the cooler growing environment that features during the winter months in the sub-tropical regions of Southern Africa and North Africa

Potatoes are grown under a wide range of conditions – from irrigated commercial farms in Egypt and South Africa to intensively cultivated tropical highland zones of Eastern and Central Africa, where it is mainly a small farmer’s crop.

In some African countries, the production of potatoes is growing very rapidly.

Algeria more than doubled its potato production in 5 years and seems to have overtaken Egypt as the number one producer in Africa in 2013 based on the preliminary FAO estimate for Egypt.

Rwanda also almost doubled its potato production in the last 5 years and now ranks among the top 5 potato producing countries of Africa

Here is Africa’s Top Potato Producing Countries by Share per tonnes according to FAOSTAT:

Algeria:  4,928,028

Egypt:     4,800,000

Malawi:  4, 535,955

South Africa:  2,252,000

Rwanda:      2.240,715

Kenya:     2,192,885

Africa is in a good position to produce even more potatoes for the global market. Greater involvement by the private sector in seed potato value chains offers a means to unlock this yield gap by overcoming the supply bottleneck that is limiting the provision of quality seed.

A more efficient and responsive seed system will improve production, distribution, use, and profitability for farmers. Promising rapid multiplication technologies, the “3G revolution,” and an engaged private sector will help provide the needed capacity to broaden adoption of quality seed and accelerate the availability of new varieties with more prospect of added value. Better integration of national agricultural research and extension systems into the value chain, as well as farmer training schemes in seed management and storage, can stimulate innovation.

It is important if a regional perspective can be put in place to help exploit economies of scale for sharing knowledge and technology, implement creative applications of information communication technologies, advocate for farmer-friendly seed-related regulations and policies, improve the business-enabling environment, and expand intra-regional trade for the seed of the highest categories.

Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda are good business investments in key areas along the seed potato value chain that will help increase the availability of high-quality seed potatoes from less than 1 percent to at least 5 percent of demand and promote improved seed management.

This will raise incomes of smallholder farmers, improve food security, and add to the rural and growing urban economies in these five countries and in Africa at large.

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system. Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory

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