
Photo: Khalil Semhat and his world record potato
"I've been working the land since I was a boy, and it's the first time I've seen anything like it", Khalil Semhat said at his farm in the Tyre area, 85 kilometres (50 miles) south of Beirut.
Semhat, 56, said he had not done anything special to cultivate such a super-sized spud. "I didn't use any chemicals at all," he insisted, adding that he had to ask a friend to help him haul the huge tuber out of the ground.
He said he was "very proud" that the super spud grew on the farm where he cultivates mainly potatoes and bananas, given that it suffered a pounding in 2006 during the summer Israeli war on Hezbollah and south Lebanon