Bangladeshis told "eat potatoes" as rice prices soar

DHAKA (Reuters) - Potatoes are not traditionally high onthe menu for Bangladesh's 140 million people, but a surge inrice and wheat prices has prompted the government to popularizethe humble spud as a substitute food.

"Think potato, grow potato and eat potato," was the mainslogan of a three-day potato festival in Dhaka last week.

Bangladesh's government is waging a campaign to convincemillions of Bangladeshis to embrace potatoes as a staple fooddue to record high rice and wheat prices and an unusually goodcrop of potatoes that will need to be eaten quickly before theyrot.

Since grain prices soared, about a third of Bangladeshishave had to skip one or two meals a day because they could notafford to buy rice which forms the bulk of their diet.

One kilo of rice has doubled in price over the past yearand now costs 40 taka (30 pence), almost half the daily wage ofa factory worker. Wheat costs 44 taka for a kilo, up 150percent. By contrast, one kilo of potatoes sells at 13 taka inthe capital, and far less in the countryside.

Potatoes are native to Latin America but were brought toSouth Asia from Europe sometime in the 18th century where theyare mostly eaten as a vegetable ingredient in dishes such ascurry.

Although an excellent carbohydrate substitute to rice, itis hard to convince Asians, who often don't regard a meal to becomplete without a bowl of rice, to switch to spuds.

"It's not possible to change people's food habitovernight," said Nazrul Islam, the director of Bangladesh'sAgriculture Information Service.

"Potato cannot replace rice as the main staple, but I thinkthey will soon realize it can be a very good substitute at areasonably low cost," he added.

POTATOES: SAFE AND NUTRITIOUS

Potatoes are regarded as a safe crop in the low-lying SouthAsian country as they are planted in October and harvested bythe end of February when the land is dry and before annualfloods ravage the country, leaving thousands of people homelessand hungry.

Potatoes are now Bangladesh's second biggest crop afterrice. Consumption has risen from an average of 7 kilo percapita in 1991 to 24 kilo in 2007, according to agricultureofficials.

Potato consumption in Britain is about 114 kilo per capitaand in Belarus, the world's biggest potato consumer, it isaround 338 kilo per capita, according to the International Yearof the Potato website.

Bangladesh's government, which recently ordered 500,000troops to eat potatoes, hopes potato consumption will jumpdrastically in the coming years as experts say it is unlikelyrice prices will return back to previous lows.

"We grow potato every year as a subsidiary crop, along withpulses and spices," said Mariam, a village farmer near Dhaka.

"But I think (we) will have to rely on potato as aprincipal crop in the future. Growing wheat is difficult as itneeds more fertilizer and irrigation. Potato is easier andcheaper to grow." Experts see potatoes as a potential antidoteto hunger caused by higher food prices, a global populationthat is growing by one billion people each decade, climbingcosts for fertilizer and reduced cropland.

The potato has been called a "hidden treasure" by theUnited Nations which proclaimed 2008 as the International Yearof the Potato.

Asian countries are seeing potatoes as their possiblesalvation as they scramble to feed their people at reasonableprices in the future in a region where the population isestimated to soar by some 35 percent to 4.9 billion by 2025.

Food security is vital in the region as many governmentsfear unrest if food staple prices keep going up.

India has said it wants to double potato production in thenext five to 10 years. China, a huge rice consumer, has becomethe world's top potato grower. In Sub-Saharan Africa, thepotato is expanding more than any other crop right now.

Potatoes are a great source of complex carbohydrates, whichrelease their energy slowly and they have only five percent ofthe fat content of wheat.

When boiled potatoes have more protein than corn and nearlytwice the calcium, according to the Potato Center in Peru. Theyare also rich in vitamins, iron, potassium and zinc.

"Rice and potato contain almost similar quantity ofcalories. But potatoes ... are rich in Vitamin C and other foodvalues. So nutritionally, potato can be a real good substitutefor rice," said S.K. Roy, a nutrition expert in Dhaka.

BIGGEST EVER CROP

This year, Bangladesh produced its biggest ever potato cropof over eight million tonnes, three million tonnes more thanlast year.

But the country lacks warehouses to store the potatoes,which spoil easily, and officials fear much of the stock willgo to waste even as people starve and suffer from malnutritionbecause they can't afford rice and refuse to turn to potatoes.

"We cannot let the potatoes, which provide us a strong foodbacking in this period when food grains are short in supply andhigh in prices, rot and perish. So let us all take more potatoand make it a viable substitute for other foods," army chiefGeneral Moeen U. Ahmed told the crowd at the potato festival.

Officials say Bangladesh can preserve only 2.2 milliontonnes of potato in 300 existing cold storages across thecountry.

"It means we will have about 3 million tonnes left ... Thisis huge, we have to consume it," said Harunur Rashid, themanaging director of Canteen Stores Department, a supermarketchain run by the army which organized the Dhaka potato festivalin a bid to popularize potatoes among the masses.

Leading local chefs whipped up dishes with potatoes for thethousands of people who attended the festival last week. Oneeven made ice-cream from crushed potato, sugar and ice.

"I am just amazed to see and taste so many dishes," saiduniversity student Rafia Akther. "I never thought potatoescould make them all," she said, with a smile.

Potatoes are used in curries but these are usually servedwith rice. It is difficult to convince people that they can eata meal based on potatoes without any rice at all.

"Normally we use potato to make curry mixed with vegetablesand fish. We don't eat it every day but take it quite often,"said Salahuddin Ahmed, a farmer and small businessman.

"But eating potato as the main dish? We never thought of itbefore!".

($1 = 68.5 taka)

(Writing by Anis Ahmed; editing by Megan Goldin)