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DHAKA, May 13 (Reuters) Potatoes are not traditionally high on the menu for Bangladesh's 140 million people, but a surge in rice and wheat prices has prompted the government to popularise the humble spud as a substitute food.
''Think potato, grow potato and eat potato,'' was the main slogan of a three-day potato festival in Dhaka last week.
Bangladesh's government is waging a campaign to convince millions of Bangladeshis to embrace potatoes as a staple food due to record high rice and wheat prices and an unusually good crop of potatoes that will need to be eaten quickly before they rot.
Since grain prices soared, about a third of Bangladeshis have had to skip one or two meals a day because they could not afford to buy rice which forms the bulk of their diet.
One kilo of rice has doubled in price over the past year and now costs 40 taka (0.58 dollar), almost half the daily wage of a factory worker. Wheat costs 44 taka for a kilo, up 150 per cent.
By contrast, one kilo of potatoes sells at 13 taka (0.19 dollars) in the capital, and far less in the countryside.
Potatoes are native to Latin America but were brought to South Asia from Europe sometime in the 18th century where they are mostly eaten as a vegetable ingredient in dishes such as curry.
Although an excellent carbohydrate substitute to rice, it is hard to convince Asians, who often don't regard a meal to be complete without a bowl of rice, to switch to spuds.
''It's not possible to change people's food habit overnight,'' said Nazrul Islam, the director of Bangladesh's Agriculture Information Service.
''Potato cannot replace rice as the main staple, but I think they will soon realise it can be a very good substitute at a reasonably low cost,'' he added.
POTATOES: SAFE AND NUTRITIOUS Potatoes are regarded as a safe crop in the low-lying South Asian country as they are planted in October and harvested by the end of February when the land is dry and before annual floods ravage the country, leaving thousands of people homeless and hungry.
Potatoes are now Bangladesh's second biggest crop after rice.
Consumption has risen from an average of 7 kilo per capita in 1991 to 24 kilo in 2007, according to agriculture officials.
Potato consumption in Britain is about 114 kilo per capita and in Belarus, the world's biggest potato consumer, it is around 338 kilo per capita, according to the International Year of the Potato website.
Bangladesh's government, which recently ordered 500,000 troops to eat potatoes, hopes potato consumption will jump drastically in the coming years as experts say it is unlikely rice prices will return back to previous lows.
''We grow potato every year as a subsidiary crop, along with pulses and spices,'' said Mariam, a village farmer near Dhaka.
''But I think (we) will have to rely on potato as a principal crop in the future. Growing wheat is difficult as it needs more fertilizer and irrigation. Potato is easier and cheaper to grow.'' Experts see potatoes as a potential antidote to hunger caused by higher food prices, a global population that is growing by one billion people each decade, climbing costs for fertilizer and reduced cropland.
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