Unleashing The Potential Of Sweetpotato In Sub Saharan Africa

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Handbook of Food Fortification and Health: From Concepts to Public Health Applications Volume 1 represents a multidisciplinary approach to food fortification. This book aims to disseminate important material pertaining to the fortification of foods from strategic initiatives to public health applications. Optimal nutritional intake is an essential component of health and wellbeing. Unfortunately situations arise on a local or national scale when nutrient supply or intake is deemed to be suboptimal. As a consequence, ill health occurs affecting individual organs or causing premature death. In terms of public health, malnutrition due to micronutrient deficiency can be quite profound imposing economic and social burdens on individuals and whole communities. This comprehensive text examines the broad spectrum of food fortification in all its manifestations. Coverage includes sections on definitions of fortifications, fortified foods, beverages and nutrients, fortifications with micronutrients, biofortification, impact on individuals, public health concepts and issues, and selective methods and food chemistry. Handbook of Food Fortification and Health: From Concepts to Public Health Applications Volume 1 is an indispensable text designed for nutritionists, dietitians, clinicians and health related professionals.

Sweetpotato and potato are expanding faster than any other food crops in sub-Saharan Africa. There is growing investment in research to address bottlenecks in value chains concerning these two crops, and growing interest from the private sector in investing in them. This book addresses five major themes on sweetpotato and potato: policies for germplasm exchange, food security and trade in Africa; seed systems; breeding and disease management; post-harvest management, processing technologies and marketing systems; nutritional value and changing behaviours.

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.

Contents 1. Maria Isabel Andrade: Sweetpotato Breeder, Technology Transfer Specialist, and Advocate 1 2. Development of Cold Climate Grapes in the Upper Midwestern U.S.: The Pioneering Work of Elmer Swenson 31 3. Candidate Genes to Extend Fleshy Fruit Shelf Life 61 4. Breeding Naked Barley for Food, Feed, and Malt 95 5. The Foundations, Continuing Evolution, and Outcomes from the Application of Intellectual Property Protection in Plant Breeding and Agriculture 121 6. The Use of Endosperm Genes for Sweet Corn Improvement: A review of developments in endosperm genes in sweet corn since the seminal publication in Plant Breeding Reviews, Volume 1, by Charles Boyer and Jack Shannon (1984) 215 7. Gender and Farmer Preferences for Varietal Traits: Evidence and Issues for Crop Improvement 243 8. Domestication, Genetics, and Genomics of the American Cranberry 279 9. Images and Descriptions of Cucurbita maxima in Western Europe in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 317

African agriculture is currently at a crossroads, at which persistent food shortages are compounded by threats from climate change. But, as this book argues, Africa can feed itself in a generation and can help contribute to global food security. To achieve this Africa has to define agriculture as a force in economic growth by advancing scientific and technological research, investing in infrastructure, fostering higher technical training, and creating regional markets.

Over the past four decades, policy makers and stakeholders have struggled with the challenge of promoting industrial development in low and middle-income economies in general, and in sub-Saharan African (SSA) in particular. With the rise of the Asian Drivers (China and India) and their increase in demand for raw materials to fuel growth, the turn of the millennium saw a commodity price super-cycle emerge, benefiting a number of resource rich countries in SSA. Faced with the specter of the Resource Curse, this book examines an industrial pathway where countries can Make the Most of Commodities. Bringing together ground-breaking research in the commodity sectors, this book uses case-studies to explore conduits for industrial development, focusing on backward and forward linkages, with policy advice for both governments and corporate sectors.