Country and research reports on sweet potato; CIP research and transfer program; Present status and future prospects of sweet potatoes in Bangladesh; Sweet potato production and research in china; Sweet potato production, utilization and constrains in India; Sweet potato production, utilization, and research in Indonesia; Country report of LAO P.D.R. participants; Sweet potato cultivation in Malaysia: a country report; Country paper - papua New Guinea; Sweet potato research and development in the Philippines; The outline for sweet potato in Korea; Sweet potato in Thailand; The Sweet potato in Vietnam; Development and testing of an integrated pest management technique to control sweet potato weevil; Digestibility of sweet potato starch; Sweet potato breeding in Japan: its past, present and future; Recent studies on dry matter production physiology; Sweet potato adaptation studies at North Carolina State University; Nutritional aspects of sweet potato roots and leaves; Sweet potato research at the International Potato Center; Research activities in CIP on sweet potato virus diseases; In vitro sweet potato germplasm management; Strategies to develop sweet potatoes with weevil resistance in developing countries; Important nematode parasites of sweet potatoes and their management; Constraints to sweet potato production and use; Sweet potato production and consumption surveys: variability and varieties; CIP's program for human resources development through training; Workshop on sweet potato improvement in Asia: highlights of session presenting CIP sweet potato research programme.

To review the priorities for sweet potato germ plasm exploration and collection; To determine the best strategies for sweet potato germ plasm conservation; To establish guidelines for evaluations in the sweet potato collection; To set out strategies for utilizing these genetic resources and establish CIP's breeding priorities; To determine CIP's comparative advantage for research amongst what other institutions are already accomplishing.

There are 71 chapters in the book and authors from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Taiwan and the United States. The chapters are arranged under seven sections, which include General Topics in Food Science and Technology; Food Processing and Engineering; Antioxidants in Foods; Nutrition and Food Science; Food Safety; Sensory Science of Foods; and Food Biotechnology. Many of the chapters are exceptional in the quality and depth of science and state-of-the-art instrumentation and techniques used in the experimentation. There is literally a gold mine of new information available in this book, not only for healthful foods for the Pacific Rim but for many other areas as well.

It has been the goal in this volume to summarize the current level of understanding in a number of areas relating to sweet potato production and utilization. To accomplish this, a group of authors, each with broad experience in the selected areas, was assembled. It is hoped that this volume will be useful as a beginning point- a foundation for further research efforts.

In the last four decades of the twentieth century the use of sweetpotato was diversified beyond their classification as subsistence, food security, and famine-relief crop. In developing countries they serve both as human food and for feeding livestock. In Western countries they appeal to health conscious consumers because of their nutritional aspects. The sweetpotato is very high in nutritive value, and merits wider use on this account alone. The book has 2 parts. A general one giving up-to-date information on the history, botany, cultivars, genetic engineering, propagation, diseases and pests, nutritional data and marketing; and a second part presenting data on sweetpotato growing practices in different areas of the world. The information should be useful to researchers, practitioners and crop administrators in different countries.