Synopsis (short abstract)The International Year of the Potato (IYP) in 2008 was a celebration of one of humanity’s most important and universally loved staple foods. This end-of-year review records IYP’s achievements and underscores its essential message: that the potato is a vital part of the global food system, and will play an ever greater role in strengthening world food security and alleviating poverty. The review describes the rationale for the International Year, its objectives and implementation. It introduces our guest-of-honour, Solanum tuberosum, the “humble tuber” that spread from the Andes across six continents and changed the course of world history. Specialists from FAO and the International Potato Center deepen our knowledge of the potato in 10 factsheets on key issues in potato development. The review also provides the most recent FAO statistics on world potato production and consumption, and profiles of 52 major potato producing countries.