The potato is being repositioned as foundational to food systems that can hold up under stress.
In the quiet arithmetic of global hunger, the potato has long done more work than it receives credit for — and now, the world is beginning to keep better accounts. On May 15, the World Potato Congress and the FAO will gather specialists and stakeholders to coordinate the 2026 observance of the International Day of the Potato, a designation the UN formally granted in December 2023. The meeting is less a celebration than a reckoning: an effort to align governments, industry, and agricultural communities around a crop that feeds the vulnerable, endures difficult soils, and may prove essential as climate and population pressures converge.
- The UN's 2023 designation of May 30 as the International Day of the Potato elevated a staple long ignored in high-level food policy to a matter of formal global concern.
- A one-hour webinar on May 15 is being used as a coordination mechanism — not a ceremony — to synchronize campaigns, events, and advocacy efforts across governments and industry associations worldwide.
- FAO agricultural officer Makiko Taguchi and potato specialist Dr. André Devaux will lead the session, bringing technical depth to questions of sustainable production, value chains, and food system resilience.
- Countries are being asked to move beyond symbolic observance and commit to building potato value chains that protect soil, reduce dependency on unsustainable inputs, and improve conditions for smallholder farmers.
- The webinar will expose which nations are advancing fastest and where critical gaps remain — making it a diagnostic moment as much as a planning one.
On May 15, the World Potato Congress will host a working webinar alongside the FAO to coordinate global plans for the International Day of the Potato — an annual observance the UN General Assembly formally established in December 2023. Running from 2 to 3 p.m. Central European Time, the session will bring together governments, industry associations, and agricultural specialists to align on how the May 30 date is being marked around the world.
The UN's designation was not ceremonial. It reflected a growing consensus that the potato — resilient, nutritious, and capable of growing where other crops cannot — deserves a central place in conversations about hunger, malnutrition, and climate adaptation. The webinar is designed to translate that recognition into coordinated action: reviewing global production trends, showcasing emerging national campaigns, and pushing stakeholders toward more sustainable farming and distribution practices.
Two voices will anchor the discussion. Makiko Taguchi, the FAO's technical focal point for the International Day of the Potato, brings over two decades of experience across agronomy, pest management, and urban food systems. Dr. André Devaux joins her as a specialist in the crop itself. Together, they represent the kind of unglamorous expertise that shapes whether global food commitments become real policy or remain aspirational language.
What the webinar ultimately signals is a repositioning — of the potato, yes, but more broadly of how food security is being imagined. The FAO is pressing countries to build potato value chains that sustain rather than deplete: better growing practices, fairer systems for farmers, more durable supply networks. The International Day of the Potato is the platform for that work. The conversation on May 15 will reveal how far along that work actually is.
On May 15, the World Potato Congress will convene a webinar to map out the coming observance of the International Day of the Potato, an annual moment the United Nations formally recognized just two and a half years ago. The session runs from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Central European Time, or 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, and brings together the FAO and potato specialists to discuss how the crop is being celebrated and promoted across the globe.
The potato, it turns out, has earned its own day. In December 2023, the UN General Assembly designated May 30 as the International Day of the Potato, a formal acknowledgment of the vegetable's outsized role in feeding the world, sustaining rural economies, and anchoring sustainable agriculture. The designation was not ceremonial—it reflected a growing recognition that the potato, often overlooked in discussions of global food systems, deserves attention as a crop that can help address hunger, malnutrition, and the pressures of climate change.
The webinar itself is designed as a working session. Organizers plan to walk through current trends in potato production worldwide, then pivot to showcase how different countries and regions are beginning to mark the day. Governments, potato industry associations, and other stakeholders are expected to join in, coordinating social media campaigns and organizing on-the-ground events with FAO support. The conversation will center on how to use this moment to strengthen the global potato value chain and push toward more sustainable farming practices.
Two speakers will lead the discussion. Makiko Taguchi, an Agricultural Officer at the FAO's Plant Production and Protection Division, brings more than two decades of experience in agricultural development. She holds degrees in agronomy from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and has worked across integrated pest management, farmer field schools, agricultural diversification, and urban food systems. At the FAO, she serves as the technical focal point for the International Day of the Potato, meaning she coordinates the machinery of global awareness-raising around the crop. Dr André Devaux, a potato expert, will join her to add specialized knowledge to the conversation.
What makes this webinar worth attention is what it signals about how the world is beginning to think about food security. The potato is not glamorous. It does not command the attention that wheat or rice do in policy circles. Yet it is resilient, nutritious, and capable of growing in marginal lands where other crops struggle. As climate pressures mount and populations grow, the potato is being repositioned—not as a side dish or a starch to be apologized for, but as a foundational crop in building food systems that can actually hold up under stress.
The FAO's continued push to strengthen sustainable potato value chains reflects this shift. The organization is asking countries to think seriously about how potatoes are grown, processed, and distributed—to build systems that do not deplete soil, that do not rely on unsustainable inputs, and that actually improve the lives of the farmers who grow them. The International Day of the Potato, then, is not just a celebration. It is a platform for that work, a moment when governments and industry can align around a shared agenda.
For anyone involved in agriculture, food policy, or development work, the webinar offers a chance to see how that agenda is taking shape. The conversation will reveal which countries are moving fastest, what kinds of campaigns are resonating, and where the real gaps remain. It is the kind of unglamorous, necessary work that rarely makes headlines but determines whether the world eats well.
Citações Notáveis
The FAO continues to encourage countries and stakeholders to strengthen sustainable potato value chains and promote the crop's contribution to resilient food systems.— World Potato Congress and FAO organizers
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does the potato need its own day? Isn't that a bit much for a vegetable?
It sounds quaint until you realize the potato feeds roughly a billion people and grows in places where almost nothing else will. The UN designation is really a signal that we're rethinking what matters in food security.
So this webinar is more than just celebration?
Exactly. It's a coordination point. Governments and industry are using the day to align on sustainable production, to push back against practices that deplete soil, to strengthen supply chains. Taguchi's role is to make sure that momentum doesn't dissipate.
Who actually shows up to something like this?
Potato associations, government agriculture ministries, development organizations, researchers. People whose work depends on the crop thriving. And increasingly, people who see the potato as part of the climate adaptation toolkit.
What's the real pressure here—is it production, or sustainability, or both?
Both, but they're pulling in different directions. You need to grow more potatoes to feed more people. But you can't do it the old way anymore. The webinar is where those tensions get named and worked through.
What happens after May 30?
The campaigns and events continue, but the real work is in the value chains—how farmers are supported, how waste is reduced, how the crop gets positioned in national food strategies. The day is the visibility; the work is the follow-through.