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Are sweet potatoes native to the mainland, or are they "stolen" from overseas by the Chinese?
Legend has it that sweet potatoes have saved the lives of countless Chinese in famine years, but they are not our staple food, and their "status" is far inferior to potatoes!
Nowadays, although the mainland has the largest amount of sweet potatoes planted in the world, farmers are not very happy to plant them.
The life experience of Chinese sweet potatoes turned out to be raised by a kind "thief".
The seeds of our crops are like agricultural chips, which need the concerted efforts of the people to protect, which is very important! But the fact is that people "steal" our kiwifruit, and we also "steal" other people's sweet potatoes.
The origin of Chinese sweet potatoes has been a subject of endless debate among scientists over the years.
Some experts believe that there were records of "sweet potato" in the mainland before the Ming Dynasty, and there are detailed descriptions in the Eastern Han Dynasty's "Foreign Objects" and the Western Jin Dynasty's "Southern Grass and Trees", so sweet potatoes are a local product of China and not imported from other countries.
More scholars support the other school of view, arguing that sweet potatoes were introduced from abroad, and they are called "fan" outside of Kyushu, and there are a large number of documents from the Ming and Qing dynasties that can prove that the sweet potatoes introduced are also called sweet potatoes, and they are not the same species as the "sweet potato" recorded in the ancient classics of the mainland.
At present, it seems that the "introduction theory" school has the upper hand, because there are specific stories of introduction to support it!
At that time, the Spanish colonized the Philippines and opened up the galleon trade from the Philippines to Mexico, which gave merchants from the coastal areas of the mainland the opportunity to participate in this vast trade system, including the ancestors of the two "old Chen families".
One of them, Mr. Chen Zhenlong from Fuzhou, "stole" potato vines from Luzon.
He was a talented man from Qingqiao Village, Changle County, Fuzhou Prefecture, and after abandoning Confucianism to engage in business, he caught up with the Spanish construction galleon trade, and often traveled between Fuzhou and Luzon in the Philippines.
In order to improve the food shortage in the Philippines, the Spaniards brought sweet potatoes to the Philippines for planting, which was seen by Chen Zhenlong, and found that this potato not only has a high yield per mu, but also is drought tolerant, and has strong adaptability to the land.
Because the Spanish colonial authorities were very strict about the management of food species and did not allow sweet potato seeds to be taken out, Chen Zhenlong came up with a brilliant idea to wrap the potato vine around the water rope and coat the outer layer with mud to avoid customs exit inspection.
Chen Zhenlong first put the potato vines in his yard to try to plant, and after four months, he was very happy.
Who knew that this year Fujian coincided with a famine, Chen Zhenlong thought of the people, so he urged his son to write a letter to suggest that Fuzhou Mansion plant sweet potatoes, fortunately, Fujian Governor Jin Xuezeng listened to the suggestion, first tried to plant a lot of results, the following year it was planted all over Fujian, greatly alleviating the local famine.
The common people were grateful to Jin Xuezeng and Chen Zhenlong, and later Chen Zhenlong's descendants introduced sweet potatoes to Zhejiang and Shandong, making them gradually become one of China's staple foods.
Another Mr. Chen is Chen Yi from Guangzhou, who brought back sweet potato vines 11 years before Chen Zhenlong.
He also went to Vietnam with his friends to do business, and tasted a dish made of sweet potatoes, which tasted very good, so he began to pay attention to this ingredient, and later inquired about the characteristics of sweet potatoes and how to grow them, so he decided to bring them back to China.
However, the danger was extremely high, and at that time, Southeast Asia was particularly concerned about things that filled the stomach, and anyone who tried to steal seeds had to lose their heads. Chen Yi thought about it, but if he couldn't do it, he would spend money to buy off the guards! Under the heavy money, the sweet potato vines were hidden in the copper drum and brought back to China, and they were widely planted in the Kinmen area.
After Chen Yi's death, his descendants planted sweet potatoes at his grave every year, and over time, the crop spread widely, gradually changing the food structure of the coastal areas.
Regardless of which Mr. Chen first introduced sweet potatoes, this crop was a life-saving food for China at that time, and also laid a solid foundation for population growth in the later period of stability and prosperity.
Why did the sweet potatoes that are better than Shennong lose to potatoes on the road to the top?
In terms of nutritional value, sweet potatoes are far better than potatoes, in terms of yield per mu, sweet potatoes are far more than potatoes, and sweet potatoes have saved the lives of so many ancestors in the famine years.
First of all, the cultivation of sweet potatoes is a bit tiring compared to potatoes.
Sweet potato planting to have female potato seedlings, in the process of sowing, the details of the requirements are particularly many, such as the selection of seed potatoes is the same as the beauty pageant, to be of moderate size, the shape is correct, the skin is smooth and can not be pests, the land has to be insecticidal before covering the soil, after irrigation, it is necessary to remember that the seeds of the drainage province are drowned, the later management is strong, and the fertilization is to remove the insects to remove the bad seedlings and so on.
Potato planting is relatively less complicated, because it does not have such high requirements for temperature and storage, the most important thing is that thanks to the fact that scientists have spent a lot of effort to study potatoes over the years, in breeding, planting, pesticide, preservation, processing and other technologies are far beyond sweet potatoes.
The second is the storage of sweet potatoes, which gives the farmer a bit of a headache.
Sweet potatoes have a high moisture content, which is easy to be invaded by microorganisms, and even deteriorate and produce peculiar smells after being infected by mold, so sweet potato storage has relatively high temperature requirements and requires a cool, dry and ventilated environment.
Rural homes usually build a large cellar to keep the storage temperature warm in winter and cool in summer, but even then, some of it will still rot.
In contrast, potatoes are easier to store, a large number of potatoes can be divided into bags and packed into burlap bags, sprinkled with medicine on the bag and covered with cardboard, or more simply stacked in a dry place, plus the price is close to the people, and gradually became the first choice for the people.
Finally, because of the high sugar content, eating too much as a staple food is not good for digestion.
The reason why sweet potatoes are called sweet potatoes is because it has a high sugar content, far exceeding staple foods such as rice, flour, and potatoes, eating too much will accelerate the aging of the body, increase blood sugar, especially for diabetics, and eating too much is not conducive to physical health.
At the same time, sweet potatoes also contain a lot of starch, and eating too much is easy to produce obesity, and experts also recommend that people with wet obstructive spleen and lung disease are not suitable for eating sweet potatoes.
Looking at potatoes again, potatoes also contain a lot of starch, but potato starch is resistant starch, and at the same time contains a lot of dietary fiber, which can meet the needs of the human body, and can also be processed into potato flour as a staple food.
Based on the above reasons, sweet potatoes successfully failed in the competition of staple foods, but sweet potatoes, which failed to become the staple food, still found their own characteristic development path, that is, to become dishes on the table, afternoon tea snacks, in short, it is impossible to withdraw from the historical stage.
It turns out that there are so many industries involved in sweet potatoes, and I only think that I am superficial about roasted sweet potatoes.
In other words, the competition is cruel, the title of staple food is really not so easy to get, and the whole of China has competed for four for so many years, so in recent years, the sweet potato planting output in the mainland has been declining year by year, but the special snacks are different everywhere in the country.
Although sweet potatoes have not become a staple food, they have been at the forefront of other business models. First of all, let's take a look at the cultivation of sweet potatoes in recent years.
The cultivation of sweet potatoes in mainland China involves more than 20 provinces and regions, and the total annual output in 2020 was 23.239 million tons, a decrease of 2.1% compared with the previous year, and the harvested area also decreased.
However, on the whole, the mainland is still the world's largest producer of sweet potatoes, with a planting area of 60% of the world's total, and an output of 80% of the world's total.
Let's take a look at the industrial benefits of sweet potatoes.
According to relevant statistics, the cost of sweet potatoes per mu of production materials is about 800 yuan, labor is about 200 yuan, and the ground rent is about 900 yuan, according to the sales of different festival nodes, the price changes between 0.5-1 yuan, in general, the annual income per mu is about 1000 yuan, and the varieties will be higher.
If it is processed, it is better, after deep processing, a pound earns about 10 yuan, processed into starch, and then processed into vermicelli, the output value to more than 180%.
Finally, let's take a look at the direction in which sweet potatoes have been developing over the years.
Fresh food is the first class direction of sweet potatoes, young people now have a certain sense of health, steamed sweet potatoes in the morning, fried in the air fryer in the evening, delicious is here, in recent years, the country has begun to rise roasted sweet potatoes + rock sugar pear afternoon tea shop chain, roadside roasted sweet potatoes have also been upgraded to a chain brand.
In supermarkets, high-end packaging is more pleasing, and profits increase exponentially. Snack food processing has no requirements for appearance, the profit margin is slightly lower, and it will be made into potato chips, dried potatoes, etc., which are nutritious and have excellent taste, and are very popular with young office workers. Finally, it is processed into whole flour, which becomes a high-quality food processing raw material, and pastry ingredients are indispensable.
All in all, sweet potatoes came to China across the sea, carried forward in this vast land, Chinese working people with diligence and wisdom, sweet potatoes planted all over the country, once life-saving food, now become a delicate dessert of modern life, table delicious, it is also a good story.
Resources:
Reference 1 "Research Paper on the Introduction of Sweet Potatoes to China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties": https://www.docin.com/p-1951094898.html
Reference 2 "How Chen Zhenlong Introduced Sweet Potatoes to China": https://m.bala.iask.sina.com.cn/p/6hhqxM4vjeY
Reference 3 "China Sweet Potato Planting Yield and Development Strategic Planning Report": https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/529202194
Refer to 4 "Mainland Sweet Potato Industry Data Analysis Briefing": https://www.sohu.com/a/499340037_121117079