Thorough Investigation

 
 

Sweet potato is a worldwide farm crop. There is sweet potato in the tropics, subtropics, and the temperate zone. It is the most widely distributed farm crop in the world. Some scholars speculate that sweet potato may be the hybrid posterity of ancestral wild species between North America and Mexico. Scholars found the root tubers of sweet potato remains more than 10000 years in Peru. Thus, it becomes clear that sweet potato accompanied people as early as the Neolithic era. Because of its simple growing conditions and high productivity, sweet potato has been speedily disseminated from Central and Southern Americas in a short time.
Sweet potato is disseminatived from the Central and South Americas.

Sweet potato is disseminatived from the Central and South Americas.
 
 
 
Different opinions as regards to the path and method of sweet potato’s dissemination

Different opinions as regards to the path and method of sweet potato’s dissemination

 With respect to the path and method of sweet potato’s dissemination, Opinions are widely divided. Generally speaking, when Columbus arrived in America, he found sweet potato in Haiti, brought it back to Europe, and dedicated it to the Spanish royals. Hence, sweet potato was gradually spread to all over the world. This is "intentional dissemination". On other hand, there is another way called "random dissemination". This is a way of dissemination through traditional boats and the drift of monsoon ocean flows. It may be due to shipwreck as everyone easily guessed, or it is disseminated through animals. For example, sweet potato may be hiding in the stomach or the claw of a seabird, and be carried across the big ocean. It explains why people share the same sweet potato crops in different civilizations.  
 

 

    
  Originally sweet potato is produced in the Central and Southern America, however, nowadays the biggest yield country is mainland China. How was sweet potato disseminated to mainland China? There are lots of parlances. The most common one is that it was disseminated from the Spanish-ruling Philippines to Fujian Province. The Spaniards brought sweet potato to Philippines in the 16 century. Mr. Zhen-Long Chen, a businessman in Fujian, was engaged in exportation business to and from these two places. He succeeded in smuggling sweet potato into Fujian, the crop that was regarded as very precious and was strictly prohibited to be exported from the Philippines. This is how sweet potato becomes proliferated in mainland China.

"Station of Ancestral Sweet Potato" is built to memorize Zhen-Long Chen and the Governor, Xue-Zeng Jin who helped promote sweet potato in Fujian

"Station of Ancestral Sweet Potato" is built to memorize Zhen-Long Chen and the Governor, Xue-Zeng Jin who helped promote sweet potato in Fujian

 

 

    
 
Sweet potato was cultivated commonly in Fujian and has become a solution for alleviating famine

Sweet potato was cultivated commonly in Fujian and has become a solution for alleviating famine

In 1853, the Fujian province of mainland China was suffering from famine. The then governor, Xue-Zeng Jin, being helped by the son, Jin-Luen Chen, of the businessman, Zhen-Long Chen, resolved the shortage of food by popularize sweet potato in Fujian province. This incident was attracted special attention from the then government. In the mean time, it opened the door for the development of sweet potato and thus changed it's destiny in the whole mainland China.