ISLAMABAD: The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands hosted a live cooking demonstration, tasting, and discussion on salt tolerant potatoes at the Serena Hotel.

The event was held with the support of the Securing Water for Food Program - a combined effort by USAID, the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs that has tested salt tolerant potato varieties in Pakistan with encouraging results.

Salt-tolerant potatoes are genetically modified to be able to grow in high-salinity. Described as a game changer, this potato variety has now advanced to the second stage of the test production phase in Pakistan. If proven commercially feasible, the innovation will bring a viable option for innumerable farmers who are currently unable to grow crops on their saline landholdings and provide a new lease of life for communities that suffer from food insecurity and malnutrition.

Speaking at the event, Dr Arjen de Vos discussed the global fresh water shortage, saying: “15 years from now the world will have a much bigger problem than today as an estimated 4 billion people will be affected by water scarcity, and this number will go up in the future. Agriculture is responsible for about 70pc of all water use in the world. The future of agriculture is to grow more food with less water.”

He added: “Salt affected land is a worldwide problem, as 1.5 billion hectares worldwide are affected and the problem is growing. There is already a lot of crop damage because of salt and loss of irrigated agriculture and everybody is looking for new water resources or new agricultural land, and everybody is ignoring the salt-affected areas and ignoring the salt water reservoirs.”

In response to a question he explained: “For irrigation we use drip irrigation, and we apply quite a lot of water to prevent salt accumulation in the roots, which is not a standard situation because farmers try to apply minimum amount of water. The primary fertilizer we use is organic but we are also testing new fertilizers to improve the situation.”

Dr. Azhar, a farmer from Diwanpur, expressed his concerns about plant protection, pests and fungus. Dr. Arjen said: “Every potato variety is susceptible to it, and all problems were treated in a similar way as most Pakistani farmers are doing. So far we have only changed the potato variety and the fertilizer, as we are making changes step by step.”

Masood Malik suggested that Punjab is the main potato growing area of Pakistan and the farmers are very progressive in getting good yields but it would be better if more emphasis is placed in Sindh because that area has a high salinity problem.

Ambassador Jeannette Seppen said: “The innovation and the use of normally unusable land is to actually contribute to Pakistan’s food security. This is what it is about: how can we ensure that every Pakistani has something of good quality to eat, and use the massive country that Pakistan is to its best to its most efficient and to its most healthy?”

Celebrity chef Mehboob Khan put on a live cooking demonstration with salt tolerant potatoes. During the tasting, guests experienced the diversity of the vegetable in a hearty potato soup, Texas style potato salad, Pakistani style potatoes, baby potatoes in mushroom sauce, French fries and crisps.

Mr Khan said: “I tried these potatoes at home and they were amazing. The biggest problem in potato in Pakistan is the starch, which does not let the fries stay crisp. But these potatoes came out amazing.”

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2016