Gansu

Gansu is one of China’s important potato producing provinces, with production concentrated particularly in the cool, relatively dry highland areas of central and western Gansu. The province’s varied topography and altitude create several suitable potato growing environments, while the dry climate in many production areas can reduce disease pressure and support seed potato production under controlled irrigation. Dingxi, in central Gansu, is the province’s best-known potato region and is recognized as one of China’s major potato production areas. Zhangye in the Hexi Corridor is another important production centre, particularly for certified and virus-free seed potatoes.

Potato production in Gansu serves several parts of the value chain, including seed potatoes, commercial fresh potatoes and processing. Dingxi has developed an extensive seed-potato industry based on virus-free propagation, with facilities producing minitubers and successive generations of certified seed. Zhangye has similarly developed large-scale seed potato production, supported by specialized production bases, irrigation infrastructure and technical services. These systems have helped Gansu supply planting material to potato growing areas in other Chinese provinces as well as international markets.

The province also has a significant potato processing sector. Dingxi has developed processing facilities for starch, whole potato flour, modified starch and potato-based staple foods, while products such as Dingxi potato starch and broad potato noodles have become commercially important. In 2023, Dingxi reported a potato industry chain output value of RMB 23.8 billion, reflecting the scale of production, processing, storage, marketing and seed multiplication around the crop. Gansu’s potato sector is therefore closely linked with rural incomes, food processing and agricultural development in the province’s dryland and highland regions.

Potato cultivation in the Dingxi area has a history of more than 200 years. Over time, the crop became particularly important in the dry, high-altitude environment of central Gansu, where agricultural production is constrained by limited rainfall and difficult terrain. Dingxi lies largely in the Loess Plateau and has historically experienced low annual precipitation and high evaporation, conditions under which the relatively drought tolerant potato became an economically useful crop.

Modern development of the Gansu potato industry accelerated during the 1990s. In 1996, Dingxi authorities launched the so-called “potato project”, promoting the crop as a suitable commercial crop for the region and supporting improvements in breeding, seed production, cultivation, marketing, storage and processing. Subsequent investment transformed Dingxi into a major potato production and seed potato centre. The city was designated a national regional potato seed-breeding base in 2017, while Zhangye’s Shandan County received national recognition as a regional potato seed breeding base in 2019. Today, locally bred or selected materials such as the Longshu and Dingshu series and New Daping are grown alongside introduced varieties including Qingshu, Jizhangshu, Atlantic and Sheisen types.