HUARAL, Peru (Reuters) - Nearly 2,000 years ago, ancient Peruvians fired pottery in honor of the potato, the round, knobby tuber they dug from the ground and worshiped as a symbol of fertility and an incarnation of their Mother Earth deity.

These days, this Andean nation -- home to more than 4,000 different kinds of potatoes -- is overwhelmed by that same fertility as it faces a production explosion that has driven down prices and sparked a crisis for millions of poor farmers.

"Mother Earth went overboard. There are so many potatoes we're giving them away. They're rotting," said Arnulfo Churano, a small-time potato farmer in Huancavelica, one of Peru's poorest regions.

Peruvian production of the potato -- the world's fourth-biggest food staple after rice, wheat and corn -- has tripled in the last decade to 3.3 million tons in 2000 from 1.1 million tons in 1990.

According to the agriculture ministry, production has soared because farmers haven't coordinated when they will plant and because potato yields have increased from 7.8 tons per 2.5 acres to 11.4 tons per 2.5 acres last year.

This year, farmers have exacerbated the problem by sowing crops early amid suspicion that the El Nino weather phenomenon, which hammered Peru in 1997-98 with floods and temperature shifts -- could strike again this season. Already, unusually cold weather has killed 59 people in southern Peru.

Potatoes are farmed all year round in this poor nation, especially in the Andes mountains at up to above 13,000 feet (3,962 meters) above sea level.

"Everyone sows their crop at the same time and that hurts all of us," said Churano, one of 120 potato farmers and merchants who met recently in Huaral, around 36 miles south of Lima, to tackle the overproduction dilemma.

PRECARIOUS PRICES

"With more than 667,000 acres (of potatoes planted), the supply surpasses the demand. We need to plan better and avoid sowing crops all together," Agriculture Minister Alvaro Quijandria told Reuters.

Peru's potato explosion has prompted prices to plummet to an average of $0.08 per 2.2 pounds this year from $0.26 per 2.2 pounds in 1991.

Those low prices are why Quijandria gathered, for the first time, potato farmers, merchants and government officials to coordinate a strategy to nudge prices up and production down.

Some 3 million people dedicate themselves to potato farming in this poor nation of 27 million -- more than half of whom scrape by on $1.25 or less each day -- and the activity accounts for 7 percent of total farming output.

"The goal is to make the potato profitable by increasing communication among different regions to better schedule crops," said Javier Garcia, president of a new board to coordinate potato crops.

Peru's potato problems began in the late 1960's with a land reform plan designed to do away with the traditional set-up of rural lands that involved peons working on big tracts owned by landed gentry. It was perpetuated by two decades of guerrilla warfare, increased rice cultivation, a crisis in cereals prices, and the feared El Nino.

According to Fernando Ezeta, regional representative of the Lima-based International Potato Centre, "It would be very difficult to tell 600,000 farmers (when to plant) ... when the crops don't rely on any type of irrigation but rainwater."

Producers are relying on new products to help the ailing industry, such as precooked and frozen varieties -- ready to be fried up quickly as snacks. Another bet is an experimental potato, "capiro," that was cultivated by the company running giant copper-zinc mine Antamina as part of a social responsibility program.

INCAS HAD THE RIGHT IDEA

Renowned Peruvian archaeologist Federico Kauffmann Doig said modern Peru had a lot to learn from the ancient Inca empire that dominated a wide swath of Latin America from Colombia to Chile until the Spanish conquistadors' arrival in the 1500s.

"The Incas administrated everything to the very last detail. They were insistent that crops were planted and harvested at precise times of year," he said.

Kauffmann Doig said Inca communities gave two thirds of their harvest to the central imperial government, which stored that surplus in case of flood or famine.

They also created special potato-based foods that could be preserved for years, such as crystallised potatoes, or "chuno," which is made by freezing potatoes, leaving them in spring water for a week, and then letting them dry in the shade.

Those foods are eaten even today in Peru's Andes and the potato remains an integral part of regional traditions -- like the "llunchuywaqachi," which tests a young bride-to-be's domestic prowess by forcing her to peel a potato. Sliced potatoes are also used to cure headaches.

"The potato is native to Peru, and it has been eaten here for more than 3,000 years, according to pre-Incan tomb findings," Kauffmann Doig added.

The first written testimony about the versatile tuber dates back to 1538, when a Spanish chronicler described it as "a lump of soil that becomes as tender as a chestnut when cooked."

When the tuber was introduced in Europe in the second half of the 16th century, it was first raised by monks to feed the poor and sick. By the 18th century, the potato was widespread enough to stave off starvation during a famine in France.

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