In Denmark-Norway, the adoption of the potato as a crop was driven by the king and the church, which promoted it from the pulpit by royal decree. The work of the activist clergy which became known as the "potato priests" became part of a bigger campaign to improve agriculture, eradicate heresy and superstition and improve the health and morals of the people.
Why did the potato become emblematic of the improvement of agriculture, and not other innovations or crops? Did similar processes, movements or projects play out in other European enlightened absolutist kingdoms? Were they similar or different, and to what degree were they inspired by each other?
Maybe not specifically related to your question, but I can give a bit of background on the introduction of the potato in french cuisine.
The main figure in this is Antione Augustin Parmentier, who you will see on his wiki page that even though he was an acknowledged pharmacist, he is most famous for 'potato'.
During his imprisonment by the Prussians, he discovered by force that potato was not merely useful as food for livestock and sought it his life's mission to introduce it in french cuisine.
After his return to France, he won the "gagnant-maitrise" examination in 1766 and this allowed him perform research on a small vegetable garden, allowing him to cultivate the plant further.
6 years later he became Master pharmacist and chief pharmacist of the invalides and aphotecary-major of the French armed forces. A position that was specifically created for the first time for him. He was asked to investigate problems of wheat-rot in the bread industry and made famous publications on preparation of bread as well as opening a school for bakery.
Finally in 1787 he obtained his chance to continue working on the potato after Louis XVI granted him a plot of land of approximately 4 km to allow cultivation research. Through some publicity stunts like allowing poor people to steal the potato plants and offering lavish banquettes for VIPs like Benjamin Franklin, he wanted to make the potato the new popular and robust stock food of France.
After the revolution broke out, Parmentier lost everything and felt threatened by the new regime, but likely the circumstances of the revolution was one of the reasons why the potato was accepted as food for the masses. He had published a number of books on potato cultivation around 1789, which was followed up by Madame Merigot's 'La Cuisinere Republicaine', which was the first potato cookbook, conveniently promoting the potato amongst common (republican) folks.
The final push may as well have been the the seige of the government in 1795. Pushed for a need to have a robust food grown reliably in different areas for a large amount of people, the potato was cultivated in large amounts to combat famine. Eventually Parmentier fell in favour with Napoleon.
It's not hard to imagine that with these circumstances the average person in France at that time might have felt very inclined to use the potato every day.
Parmentier continued his research in both gastronomy and pharmacy and was awarded many awards, but a lot of French people know his name nowadays thanks to the dish 'Hachis Parmentier', a kind of shepherd's pie with potato. (very tasty, would recommend)
I obtained a lot of information from this page: http://www.napoleonicsociety.com/english/riaudparmentier.html