Abstract:
Potato, sweetpotato, and minor Andean roots and tubers together constitute a significant share of the total volume and value of horticultural crops world-wide.
These commodities are particularly important as a source of food, employment, and income in developing countries where the bulk of the world's producers, processors, and consumers reside.
As we enter the new millennium, roots and tubers will play an increasingly important role in meeting the food requirements, feed uses, and income needs of the world's food system.
In this paper, we briefly describe recent global trends in production and utilization for roots and tubers, and then present CIP's collaborative research program.
The central themes of this paper are the growing importance of these commodities in the world's food system, and the integrated nature of CIP's research efforts that are intended to help producers and consumers exploit their full potential.
After separate reviews of trends, projects, and research activities for potato, sweetpotato, and Andean roots and tubers, the paper summarizes principal findings and draws attention to what we perceive to be the shifting global research agenda for these horticultural crops in the future.
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