Study On The Development History Of Potato In Inner Mongolia

Native to the Peruvian-Bolivian Andes,the potato was domesticated by the Incas and has been cultivated for more than 7,000 years;the Spanish brought the potato to Europe in the second half of the 16 th century and it took nearly two centuries for it to be accepted by the European people.At the end of the Ming Dynasty,with the development of Western colonial activities,the potato was brought to China and has since spread widely throughout the country.Inner Mongolia is a vast region,and the introduction of the potato was influenced by both population activity and administrative boundaries.In terms of population activity,the eastern region of Inner Mongolia,Jirem League,was one of the destinations for "breaking through to the east",while the central and western regions of Inner Mongolia were the receiving areas for people "going west";in terms of administrative divisions,the eastern region of Inner Mongolia was mainly Jirem League,in terms of geography In the Qing dynasty,Jirem League belonged to the north-east,and during the Qing dynasty,Jirem League covered most of the land of today’s Heilongjiang,Jilin and Liaoning;in the Republic of China,administrative areas were redrawn and provinces were re-planned,and Jirem League’s land came under the jurisdiction of Fengtian,Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces respectively,so Jirem League and Heilongjiang have always had close links,and potatoes in eastern Inner Mongolia may have been imported from this area,while potatoes in central and western Inner Mongolia Potatoes in the central and western regions should have been imported from Shanxi,and planted earlier than in the eastern regions.People in Inner Mongolia have a more mature understanding of potatoes,and a more complete system of sowing-cultivation-harvesting-storage has been developed for potatoes in everyday life,in terms of sowing time,cultivation methods,harvesting time and yield,and how to store them over winter.On the table,potatoes met the basic needs of people in Inner Mongolia,with cheap,high-yielding potatoes being one of the main foods for poor farmers at the time.In addition,processed potato products were also of great use,as potato vermicelli and starch were processed and sold for their own use and economic gain.The introduction and cultivation of the potato has influenced the agricultural production,socio-economic and dietary structure of Inner Mongolia,and is of great significance for further understanding of the region’s agricultural history.