FAO has announced the theme for the International Day of Potato 2025: Shaping history, feeding the future.
Cultivated in more than 100 countries, the potato has a rich past and a promising future. As the world’s leading non-grain food crop, it reached a record annual production of 383 million tonnes in 2023. Today, developing countries account for more than half of global output, with demand and consumption continuing to rise.
“From the soil to the plate, the potato holds the power to transform lives,” says Yurdi Yasmi, director of FAO Plant Production and Protection Division. “To ensure a sustainable food-secure future benefitting from potato, we must accelerate the adoption of climate-smart varieties and agronomic practices, scale up access to quality seeds and promote integrated pest management of the crop. In doing so, we can grow a future where every farmer thrives, every plate is nourishing, and every harvest feeds hope,” he explains.