Potatoes & Vegetables
Vegetable
crops, including root and tuber crops, are the second most important group
of crops produced worldwide. Their global production exceeds 1 billion tonnes
every year. "Root and tuber crops" correspond to a wide cross-section
of subterranean storage organs such as root, tuber, rhizome, corm and bulb
crops.
Root and vegetable production has quite kept pace with population growth in the last decades. However, the state and impacts of current agricultural practices as well as the growing demand for food worldwide raise many challenges, especially the one of sustainability. SAI Platform’s new Working Group on potatoes and vegetables aims at contributing to meeting this challenge by developing sustainable agricultural practices that allow for the productive, competitive and efficient production of potatoes and vegetables while at the same time protecting and improving the natural environment and social/economic conditions of local communities - see SAI Platform's Newsletter 6 for further details on the Working Group's launch.
SAI
Platform's Working Group on Potatoes and Vegetables held its first meeting
in December 2003. It was then agreed that the Working Group's overall aim,
approach and forthcoming activities should first be discussed together with
producers. Thus, a consultation meeting was held on April 6, 2004, with producer
representatives from Europe and Northern America. Following the April 6 meeting,
the Mission
Statement of the Working Group on Potatoes and Vegetables was produced.
As per comments received from producer representatives, the Working Group finalised its draft principles and practices for the sustainable production of potatoes and vegetables in the end of 2005. It is now in the process of testing these through pilot projects in several countries. Information on these projects will be made available on this webpage later this year.
Consorzio Interregionale Ortifrutticoli, Findus, Kraft, Lamb Weston Meijer, McCain Europe, McDonald's and Unilever are SAI Platform's active members of the Working Group on Potatoes and Vegetables. Tony van Leersum, McCain Europe, is the Working Group's Chairman.