This week the United Nations Food And Agriculture Organisation (FAO) announced a competition to mark the International Year of the Potato intended to highlight the common vegetable's potential to improve food security in the developing world. This report from Kate Poland:

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It's calling for photographers around the world - amateur and professional - to focus on the humble spud's potential to feed more people. Although not generally regarded as particularly photogenic, the organisers say that the photographers who explore the world of the potato will find plenty of inspiration. And the best portraits will win up to four thousand dollars.

The potato was first cultivated by hunter-gatherers in the Andes thousands of years ago. After the Spanish conquest of Peru in the sixteenth century the tuber was brought to Europe where it was considered an exotic gift. By the nineteenth century it had become a staple across the continent.

It is a good source of energy and protein and a medium-sized potato provides half the recommended daily intake of vitamin C. As the global population increases and pressure on land and water in developing countries intensifies, the potato could just prove to be buried treasure.

Kate Poland, BBC

Listen to the words

versatile
can be used for many things

nutritious food
food which contains many things that people need to be healthy

spud
a common word in British English for a potato

photogenic
looking good in photographs

cultivated
produced and grown in large quantities

hunter-gatherers
a term for ancient peoples who survived by killing and eating wild animals and finding other foods

the tuber
the biological term for type of plant a potato is - it has a round part that grows under the ground and produces new plants

an exotic gift
a strange and unusual present

a staple
a basic and important food which is eaten widely as a part of most or many meals

intensifies
gets greater