Within the framework of the cycle of conferences of the Festivities of Carmen de Los Realejos 2022and within the commemorative acts of the fourth centenary of the first planting of old potatoes in the Canary Islands, dated in 1622 in Icod el Alto, The City Council of Los Realejos, through its Department of Rural Development, organizes this Thursday, July 14, an international conference on ancient crops and the history and trajectory of this tuber. It will be from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the headquarters of the Casino Realejos in San Agustin Y will be broadcast live through the Facebook page of the City Council of Los Realejos. collaborate the Island Council of Tenerife, the International Potato Centerbased in Peru, and The Pretty Potato Association of the northern municipality.
The mayor of Los Realejos, Adolf Gonzalezwill be accompanied by the Councilor for Rural Development, alexis hernandezto welcome this conference, which will be attended by the consul of Peru, Fernando Ruiz Lecuonaand the Island Councilor for Agriculture of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Javier Grill.
Adolf Gonzalez values “the culture that has been created around the cultivation of a tuber that has been with us for four centuries and that has not only shaped our landscape, but has also fed many families and that is a true symbol of the special historical bond that exists between the Canary Islands and Latin Americain this case between The Realejos and Perubecause from the Andean country to the royal garden the potato arrived for the first time to its sowing in Europe”.
“Having these days from Los Realejos with expert voices in the field, with their own testimonies and with those that will reach us from the other side of the Atlantic, some face-to-face and others remotely, thanks to new technologies, is a luxury to continue learning and at the same time making known the importance of the potato in our idiosyncrasy, and doing it in addition in a year as special as the fourth centenary of its first planting in the islands”, adds the mayor.
The program of the day
- 16:00 Institutional inauguration
- 16:15 Intervention online of the general director of the International Potato Center (CIP), in Peru, Óscar Ortiz, with the presentation Conservation and use of native potato varieties for humanity: CIP’s experience.
- 16:45 Online intervention by the international project consultant Manuel Méndez Guerrero with Amazon potato. Cultural and gastronomic heritage of the Peruvian Amazonian peopleswhere professors from the University of San Martín will also take part.
- 17:15 Intervention of representatives of the Association La Papa Bonita and Traditional Crops of Icod el Alto with the presentation Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Old Potatoes from the Canary Islands, past, present and future.
- 18:15 Intervention by the head of the Rural Development service of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Domingo Ríos Mesa, with the presentation Potatoes from Tenerife: from America to the Canary Islands.
- 19:00 Intervention by CIP scientist emeritus and member of the World Potato Congress (WPC) board, Andre Devaux, with the presentation The potato: a gift from the Andes to the Canary Islands and the world.
- 19:45 Colloquium and closing of the conference.
