TUBER CROPS: PRODUCTION, FOOD SECURITY AND INDUSTRIAL USES

Tuber crops are the third important group of food crops after cereals and pulses, feeding about the fifth of the world population with the burgeoning population coupled with limited land, water and other resources, the future beckons tuber crops is fulfilling the country’s food requirements.

Tuber crops have higher biological efficiency and greater adoption with profound production potential per unit area per unit time. Tuber crops are well known from time immemorial as nature’s energy bank and famine savior. Tuber crops find an important place in the dietary habits of small and marginal farmers especially in the food security of tribal population. Tuber crops not only enrich the diet of the people but also possess medicinal properties to cure many ailments or check their incidence.
The present book Tuber Crops covers in 10 chapters. It is conceived to have an updated version on the tuber crops especially in the Indian context, including information on the history, biodiversity, geographical distribution, botany, industrial uses, food security, post-harvest technologies and value-added products. Various aspects of Cassava, Sweet potato, Elephant foot yam, Greater Yam, Colocasia (Taro) and Potato elucidated in chapters and appendices.

This book will be of immense use to the policy makers, scientists, and post graduates and under graduate students and official concerned with tuber crop research, development and extension.

We express our gratitude to Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi who given financial support to publish this book under the project entitled “Processing and Value Addition of Underexploited Flowers and Tubers for Entrepreneurship Development and Economic Empowerment of SC/ST Beneficiaries” and also we extend our gratitude towards University of Agricultural Sciences, College of Community Science, Department of Family Resource Management, Dharwad, Karnataka.

The book is authored by Dr. Veena S. Jadhav, Professor and Principal Investigator, Department of Family Resource Management, College of Community Science, UAS Dharwad, Dr. Sanjana N. Joshi, Graduate Assistant, Dr. K Ramachandra Naik and Ms. Manasi S. Jadhav.