In 1995, TAC commissioned an Inter-Centre Review of Root and Tuber Crops Research in the CGIAR, and that group's final report was submitted in April 1996. Among its findings, the review recommended that the Centers working on these crops prepare, in consultation with non-CGIAR members, "a comprehensive, documented text that sets out a vision for root and tuber research employing inter-Centre collaborations and institutional partnerships ... "(TAC, 1997). At International Centers' Week 1996, representatives of CIAT, CIP, IFPRI, IPGRI, and IITA met, formed an informal committee, and established a task force to prepare such a report, with CIP and CIAT representatives acting as co-convenors. This document synthesizes the principal findings of the subsequent work. Roots and tuber crops have myriad and complex roles to play in feeding the world in the coming decades. Far from being one sort of crop that serves one specific purpose, they will be many things to many-very many-people.

"Native to the New World, the potato was domesticated by Andean farmers, probably in the Lake Titicaca basin, almost as early as grain crops were cultivated in the Near East. Full of essential vitamins and energy-giving starch, the potato has proved a valuable world resource. Curious Spaniards took the potato back to Europe, from whence it spread worldwide. Today, the largest potato producer is China, with India not far behind. To tell the potato's story, Lang has done fieldwork in South America, Asia, and Africa."--Jacket.

Varieties and Landraces: Cultural Practices and Traditional Uses, Volume Two in the Underground Starchy Crops of South American Origin series, brings information on the applied level of producing and using starch from a range of plants grown in tropical and subtropical areas of South American origin. The book presents the economic and social importance of these crops that store starch in underground organs. The title also explores bioactive compounds as a way for the valorization of these crops, along with commercial and traditional cultivation in South America (Colombia/Venezuela/Andean highlands, Mexico, Brazilian savannah and Pantanal, besides the Amazon forest), bringing botanical information, too. Edited by a team of experts with a solid background in starch extraction research, this book is ideal for anyone involved in research and development, as well as anyone in cultivation, quality control and legislation in the field of starch. - Presents a summary view of how agricultural production and cultivation of starchy crops occur in their countries of origin, highlighting their strengths and challenges - Covers the possibilities for local development by valuing products obtained from natural crops in more distant and scarcer markets of variability - Evaluates landraces that are found in small-scale agriculture where traditions are maintained, including tubers, rhizomes and roots as carbohydrate sources used as stable foods in South American countries

Andean roots tubers at the crossroads; Ahipa: pachyhizus (Wedd.) Parodi; Arracacha: arracacha xanthirrhiza Bancroft; Maca: Lepidium meyenii Walp; Yacon: Smallanthus sconchifolius (Poepp. & Endl.).

El presente volumen tiene como objetivo contribuir al conocimiento sobre la variabilidad de los modos de alimentación en las sociedades precolombinas y coloniales. Se trata de un conjunto de trabajos (desde disciplinas como la arqueología y la antropología física) que se centran sobre todo en estudios de casos realizados en Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, México y Perú, pero que transcienden a los casos particulares en ellos presentados. La vastedad de las temáticas tratadas, permite ahondar en aspectos como la subsistencia en sociedades cazadoras-recolectoras, primeras sociedades agrícolas, las sociedades preindustriales, y de esta manera aportar elementos para la reflexión sobre el papel que los alimentos, su obtención, procesado y consumo, tuvieron en estas sociedades.

About neglected crops of the American continent. Published in collaboration with the Botanical Garden of Cord�ba (Spain) as part of the Etnobot�nica92 Programme (Andalusia, 1992)

Contains information on familiar and exotic root vegetables and includes recipes featuring each vegetable, including horseradish vinaigrette, stir-fried lotus root and snow peas, and yuca chips.