Preface; Contents; Contributors; 1 Potatoes; 2 Cassava; 3 Sweet Potato; 4 Yams; 5 Taro and Cocoyam; 6 Sugar Beet; 7 Fodder Beet; 8 Swedes and Turnips; Index
Summary
It is important to include "Tuber and Root Crops" in the "Handbook of Plant Breeding". They include starchy staple crops that are of increasing importance for global food security and relief of poverty, important millennium goals for the United Nations. Indeed, 2008 was the UN International Year of the Potato in recognition of this role of the potato as the world's third most important food crop after wheat and rice. The other major staples are cassava, sweet potato and yam. Together they occupy about 50 million hectares, with production at 640 million metric tons, of which
