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Practical Nutrition: Roots, Tubers and Bananas Theme Month

woman with bananas

Roots, tubers and bananas (RTB crops) are the foundation of food security for millions of people across Asia, Africa and Latin America. They will be increasingly important in response to climate change, population growth and urbanization; and they can contribute essential micronutrients such as iron, zinc and vitamin A that are especially important for good health in children and mothers. A research brief from the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) makes a strong case for the fundamental importance of its mandate crops within One CGIAR, the ongoing reformulation of CGIAR’s partnerships, knowledge, assets and global presence. With further research and development, enhanced yields of RTB crops will help to address the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 of ending poverty. To date, however, research investment in RTB crops has lagged.

We often get asked why bananas are lumped together with roots and tubers. Partly, this has to do with the way they are grown; but it also has to do with their key role as staples — that are more perishable than cereals — in many developing countries. These crops are all vegetatively propagated from bulky and perishable planting material. This creates common challenges for seed production and distribution, as well as severe challenges from disease accumulation, and its subsequent spread. In addition, seed systems are mostly informal, with farmers sharing planting material from their fields. 

Across the humid tropics of Africa, RTB crops are the principal staples, supplying 25%-57% of calories in the diet. As they are bulky, perishable and often eaten fresh, they pose common challenges for post-harvest systems as well as opportunities for adding value. Despite this dependence, the low productivity of RTB crops in sub-Saharan Africa reduces their contribution to addressing undernutrition in rural populations. At the same time, inefficient traditional post-harvest management and supply chain logistics for RTB value chains mean that countries import large quantities of staple grains for rapidly growing urban populations.

Outside the humid tropics of Africa and in most of Asia and Latin America, RTB crops are important in rotation with cereals and legumes and agroforestry systems. Roots, tubers and bananas enhance resilience because they often have key traits that enable them to survive shifting weather patterns, including droughts and flooding, adverse soil conditions like salinity and waterlogging, as well as catastrophic events such as tropical storms (because roots and tubers are buried safely underground).

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Yam in the ground

Seed Yam Industry Revolutionized as Propagation Rates Increase a Thousandfold

Research breakthroughs from the Yam Improvement for Incomes and Food Security in West Africa, Phase II, have demonstrated increased propagation rates of seed yams up to a thousandfold.

Agrilinks Team

Jun 09, 2021
Agricultural Productivity
a woman unearths sweetpotatoes.

Climate-Smart Innovations for Root, Tuber, and Banana Crops: Towards a Food- and Nutrition-Secure Future

There is an urgent need for crop varieties and technologies that help smallholder farmers adapt to climate change.

Agrilinks Team

Jun 04, 2021
Agricultural Productivity Climate and Natural Resources
Two women and one man with cassava roots

Cassava Peels: From Want-Not to Waste-Not

The Cassava Peel Project found a way to convert wet cassava peel into energy-rich, high-quality animal feed, potentially cutting down on environmental and health problems.

Agrilinks Team

Jun 04, 2021
Climate and Natural Resources Food Safety
four women walk down a dirt road carrying stacks of plants on their heads.

The Role of Biofortified Sweetpotato in Humanitarian Nutrition Interventions in Fragile Environments

A collaboration between CIP and the WFP seeks to improve the nutrition and livelihoods of vulnerable populations and could benefit more than 10 million people living in crises environments.
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Frederick Grant

Jun 03, 2021
Agricultural Productivity Nutrition Resilience
a woman distributes Vitamin A banana plantlets to farmers in Burundi.

Banana: The Low Hanging Fruit for Vitamin A Deficiency in Eastern Africa

Read how bananas support the fight against vitamin A deficiency (VAD), which remains a public health concern with devastating implications in sub-Saharan Africa, including East and Central Africa.

Beatrice Ekesa

Jun 02, 2021
Nutrition
woman hold bananas

The Gender-Responsive Participatory Market Chain Approach (G+PMCA) Triggers Women's Empowerment in Uganda

Implementing the gender-responsive participatory market chain approach (G+PMCA) to encourage women to venture into areas they are currently absent from.
profile image of Sarah Mayanja

Susan Ajambo

Sarah Mayanja

May 28, 2021
Markets and Trade Gender
2 women hold up sweetpotaotes

Sweet Resilience

Sweetpotato helps communities bounce back from humanitarian crises.
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Christopher Butler

May 27, 2021
Agricultural Productivity Education and Extension Nutrition Resilience
a field of potato cuttings

Catalyzing a Greater Supply of Seed Potato in Kenya

Using rooted apical cuttings is an innovative technology accelerating access to seed and new varieties to boost potato value chains.
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Monica Parker

May 26, 2021
Agricultural Productivity
men working in a potato seed system in Ecuador. One image shows two men working together in the field and the other image shows a hand holding potatoes.

Evaluating Seed Systems to Guide Improvement: Variety Diffusion, Disease Management and Benefits

Seed systems are key in the distribution of high-quality seed and improved varieties. New tools for evaluating seed systems highlight the best improvements to provide benefits to all stakeholders.

Karen Garrett

May 26, 2021
Agricultural Productivity Climate and Natural Resources Education and Extension Food Safety Markets and Trade Gender Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Nutrition Policy and Governance Resilience Youth
a woman sits with a small child in her lap. She is feeding the child sweetpotato from a bowl.

Let’s Eat Orange! Unleashing the Potential of Biofortified Sweetpotato in Africa

The vitamin A rich, orange-fleshed sweetpotato is used to combat malnutrition in Africa, but it required scientists, extensionists and community-based nutrition workers to promote its use.

Agrilinks Team

May 25, 2021
Nutrition

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