UN launches International Year of the Potato 2008

The United Nations on Thursday officially launches “International Year of the Potato 2008,” an initiative mocked in private by some diplomats but enabling governments to raise much-needed funds for agricultural research.

The move to “increase awareness of the importance of the potato as a food in developing nations” was proposed by the UN’s Rome-based Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and adopted by the General Assembly in 2005.

Throughout 2008, the International Year of the Potato (IYP) will seek to underline the humble spud’s role in improving food security and poverty alleviation.

“For us diplomats these ‘international years of ...’ are of minor importance compared to resolutions concerning conflicts, or world diplomacy. But we cannot turn down proposals from specialist agencies,” said a UN official who asked not to be identified.

“Strict rules limiting a country’s possibility of requesting an ‘international year of ...’ were introduced recently,” he added.

“There was the international year of rice (2004), an international year of mountains (2002), now the Italians are trying to promote an international year of astronomy. We jump from one thing to another,” he said.

But with the world population due to grow by around 100 million people a year over the next two decades — with 95 percent of that increase in the developing world — the stakes are high.

New York, Thursday, AFP