Matured harvested potatoes
According to FAOSTAT 2018, Potato production in Africa has more than doubled with 70 percent of that growth concentrated in eastern Africa. Despite these gains, potato yields of small-scale farmers in the region fall short of their potential due to a potent combination of inadequate supplies of high-quality seed and limited awareness of better seed management practices. Potatoes are grown under a wide range of conditions: From irrigated commercial farms in Egypt and South Africa to the tropical highland zones of Eastern and Central Africa, where it is mainly a small farmer’s crop. In some African countries, the production of potatoes is growing rapidly.
Algeria doubled up more than its potato production in the last 5 years and seems to have overtaken Egypt as the number one producer in Africa in 2013 based on the preliminary FAO estimate for Egypt. Rwanda also doubled its potato production in the last 5 years and now ranks among the top 5 potato producing countries of Africa. Algeria is the leading country in potato production followed by Egypt. The following are the six leading Countries by Share per tonnes:
- Algeria: 4,928,028 tons
- Egypt: 4,800,000 tons
- Malawi: 4,535,955 tons
- South Africa: 2,252,000 tons
- Rwanda: 2,240,715 tons
- Kenya: 2,192,885 tons
Africa is in a good position to produce even more potatoes for the global market. Greater involvement by the private sector in seed potato value chains offers a means to unlock this yield gap by overcoming the supply bottleneck that is limiting the provision.
