Potatoes can cope with climate change

Farmers Weekly (UK): Climate change could slash potato yields, but adjustments in agronomy and crop location should more than compensate.
Potatoes are more water-efficient than wheat, rice or maize, so the crop should be key to feeding the world's predicted 9bn people in 2050, delegates at the recent World Potato Congress in New Zealand heard.

"This is a really strong advantage of the potato crop," said the UN's Jim Salinger and principle scientist of New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. "Basically it's a crop adapted to a drier climate."

Only 300-600mm of water was needed per crop, but with water availability set to plummet and temperatures to soar in many production areas, cropping would need to move to higher rainfall zones, and to where temperatures were tolerable.
"It tends to be a crop with temperate characteristics," stressed Prof Salinger, noting that the optimum for plant and shoot emergence was 22C and for tuber initiation and bulking 16-19C….