GM Sweet Potato

Facts

Because of its versatility and adaptability, sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) ranks as the world’s seventh food crop-after rice, wheat, maize, potato, barley, and cassava. Believe it or not. Despite its name, the sweet potato is not related to the potato!! Potatoes are members of the Solanaceae family, which also includes tomatoes, red peppers, and eggplant while sweet potatoes belong to the morning glory Convolvulaceae family.

History

Scientists believe that sweet potato was domesticated more than 5000 years ago. Latin America is the original home of the sweet potato. The crop was reportedly introduced into China in the late 16th century. Because of its hardy nature and broad adaptability, and because its planting material can be rapidly multiplied from very few roots, sweet potato spread through Asia, Africa, and Latin America during the 17th and 18th centuries. It is now grown in more developing countries than any other root crop

Treasure for the poor

Over 95% of the global sweet potato crop is produced in developing countries. The crop is predominantly a primary or secondary staple food for the world’s poor. Asia is the world’s largest sweet potato producing region, and China alone accounts for more than 80% of the global output. Africa makes up 5% of the total production.

Disaster relief

Sweet potato has been known as a lifesaver. The Japanese used it when typhoons devastated their rice fields. It kept millions from starvation in famine plagued China in the early 1960s. In Uganda, rural communities depended on the sweet potato to combat hunger when a virus raged cassava crops in the 1990s. In the semiarid plains of East Africa, sweet potato is called “protector of the children,” fulfilling its role in combating hunger.

Nutritional value

Sweet potato is high in carbohydrates and vitamin A and can produce more edible energy per hectare per day than wheat, rice or cassava. Depending on the variety, 100 g of sweetpotato can provide enough beta-carotene to produce from 0 to 100% of the suggested daily vitamin A requirement, which is at least 350 micrograms (mg) per day for infants and young children. Because not all beta-carotene can be converted by the body, this translates to about 2400 mg of beta-carotene, an amount easily supplied by about 100 g of orange-flesh sweet potato. If infants, young children, and adults are encouraged to eat more orange-flesh sweet potato to protect themselves against blindness, they will also benefit from other health-enhancing features of this root, which provides adequate amounts of calories and vitamin B and vitamin C (absorbic acid) as well as helpful amounts of other micronutrients such as iron (the iron content in sweet potato, although not high compared to most food crops, is still twice that in rice).

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