Publications /  Annual Report 1999

Root and tuber crops have complex roles to play in feeding the developing world in the coming decades. By 2020, more than two billion people in Asia, Africa, and Latin America will depend on these crops for food, feed, or income. Many of them will be among the poorest of the poor. Current decisions about research investment on root and tuber crops in the CGIAR—and the strategy chosen for this research—will have profound implications for people around the world now and for decades to come. In a recent report co-published by CGIAR Centers CIP, CIAT, IFPRI, IITA, and IPGRI, the authors shed new light on the vision for these crops.

The adaptation of roots and tubers to marginal environments, their contribution to household food security, and their great flexibility in mixed farming systems, will make them an important component of strategies to help improve the welfare of the rural poor. At the same time, they will link smallholder farmers with emerging markets, providing a diversified range of high-quality, competitive products for food, feed, and industry.

Many of the developing world’s poorest and most food-insecure households look to these crops as a contributing if not principal source of food, nutrition, and cash income. Farm households see the value of roots and tubers in their ability to produce more edible energy per hectare per day than other commodities and in the fact that they produce under conditions where other crops may fail. In 1995–97, farmers in developing countries harvested 439 million metric tons of the major roots and tubers—cassava, potato, sweetpotato, and yam—with an estimated annual value of more than US$41 billion, nearly one-fourth the value of the major cereals.

The projections for roots and tubers reported on in this study were generated using the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) IMPACT model and take into consideration the production of nearly all the major commodities in the global food system, including cereals, soybean, and meat. Roots and tubers’ share of the total value of these products is projected to remain at roughly 11 percent.

The projected growth rates in output are particularly strong for potato (2.7 percent/yr) and yam (2.9 percent/yr). Production of cassava and sweetpotato will expand at a more modest pace—1.95 percent and 1.0 percent per year respectively. While these projected growth rates may appear high, they actually represent a considerable slowdown compared to recent rates of expansion for these crops. Nevertheless, future growth rates calculated for cassava, potato, and yam exceed those estimated for rice and wheat.

Given these findings, roots and tubers should remain an integral part of a global strategy to increase food production and utilization in Asia, Africa, and Latin America in the decades ahead. With a view to achieving the CGIAR’s objectives of improving food security and eradicating poverty, and based on the Report’s findings, representatives of the five CGIAR Centers that collaborated in this study have recommended mechanisms for more effectively capturing synergies among organizations working on roots and tubers.

Projected growth rates for major food crops in developing countries to 2020a.

a. With the average production for 1992–94 as the base period.
b. Disaggregated growth rates for sweetpotato (1.0) and yam (2.9) are estimated outside IMPACT, but calculated based on those simulations. Source: Scott, G., M.W. Rosegrant, and C. Ringler. 2000. Roots and tubers for the 21st century: Trends, projections, and policy options for developing countries. Food, Agriculture, and the Environment Discussion Paper No. 31. IFPRI-CIP, Washington, DC.