The United Nations declared 2008 as the International Year of the Potato (IYP) in order to seek to strengthen the global potato industry and to be of particular value to developing countries in recognition of the potential of potato for them. This ‘end-of-year review’ sets out the rationale for the IYP's objectives and how they were implemented. It includes 10 FAO factsheets on the potato and briefly summarizes recent FAO statistics of world potato production and consumption highlighting the increasingly important role of potato in the developing world, a crop capable of producing a higher yield of nutritional food per unit area in a shorter period than the major grain crops. The potato's history and current situation in 52 major producing countries is profiled. The Director-General of the International Potato Centre (CIP) and other experts provide their perspectives, albeit briefly, on the potato's capacity to feed the poor, its origins, possible effects of climate change and progress towards sequencing the potato genome. Whether it will achieve its stated objectives or not this book provides a record of the IYP and is a compendium of numerous facts and figures of possible interest to readers seeking information on global food issues. Crop specialists may find it lacks substance but it could raise awareness and stimulate further investigation into some of the issues and areas briefly touched on. Unfortunately there are no references nor any suggestions for further reading to provide more substantive insights into the biology, origins, agronomy and economic importance of this extremely important crop.