Lost Crops of Africa Volume II: Vegetables (2006) / Chapter Skim
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15 Native Potatoes
15 Native Potatoes
Pages 268-285
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From page 268... ...
Drawing courtesy of PROTA.org
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From page 269... ...
2 Both cassava and sweet potato are of tropical American origin and were introduced probably in the 1600s by Portuguese slavers needing to feed masses of people crammed aboard tiny ships. Potato arrived in the African highlands relatively recently, within colonial times.
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From page 270... ...
This 3,000-member family graces human existence with numerous herbs and fragrances, including lavender, mint, spearmint, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, basil, and majoram, but no major root crops. Indeed, Africa's native potatoes are the only mints producing human food below ground.
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From page 271... ...
rotundifolius are much sweeter, by comparison. 4These taxonomists include some of botany's biggest stars: John Gilbert Baker, George Bentham, Carl Ludwig von Blume, Nicholas Edward Brown, Auguste Jean Baptiste Chevalier, Julia Morton, Georges Samuel Perrottet, Jean Louis Marie Poiret, Anton Sprengel, and George Taylor.
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From page 272... ...
Although native potato is not a cash crop in the modern sense, part of the harvest is commonly put up for sale in the villages. Collectively, African women derive considerable income thereby.
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From page 273... ...
They may never prove food-supply superstars, but they are well worth investigating. A recent report from the CGIAR declares that: "root crops will be many things to many people by 2020."6 Driving the authors to this deduction is the root crops' adaptation to marginal environments, their vital role in promoting food security at the household level, and their flexibility in mixed farming systems.
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From page 274... ...
P esculentus prefers dryer conditions but is also in moist regions parts of South and East Africa.
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From page 275... ...
rotundifolius tuber sample as being 76 percent moisture. Its dry matter consisted of 91 percent carbohydrate, 5 percent crude protein, 4 percent fiber, 4 percent ash, and 1 7 James Allemann writes: "The material that I am working with was collected in the Venda region of South Africa (altitude about 850m)
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From page 276... ...
esculentus in South Africa recorded (on a dry-weight basis) : 81 percent carbohydrate, 13.5 percent crude protein, 4 percent ash, and 1 percent fat.
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From page 277... ...
Other clonal tuber crops commonly carry a load of such afflictions, which are passed on generation to generation. The presence of such microbes has not been shown in Africa's native potatoes; however, the possibility that they are suppressing the crop at least in parts of Africa deserves consideration.
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From page 278... ...
In the cases of other root and tuber crops this technology has produced almost miraculous leaps in plant health and productivity. Now a government research organization in South Africa has applied it to the native potato.
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From page 279... ...
should gather representative tubers from different plant types found across Africa, grow them out, and conduct cross-pollination, DNA, and other identity tests. This will determine just how many species make up the crop that in this chapter we collect under the name native potato.
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From page 280... ...
rotundifolius, the large and medium sized tubers are eaten, and the small ones used to establish the new crop. This is a process possibly leading to the preferential selection of plants producing small tubers, a feature also needing careful investigation.
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From page 281... ...
This includes: · Mass production of quality planting materials; · Cultural practices; · Plant establishment; · Optimum plant density; · Production under shade; · Production in poor soils; · Cultivation under excessively wet conditions, and also excessively dry; · Production systems that include legumes and rotations; · Year-round production in the hot, humid tropics; · Reproductive pruning (removing the flowers and tops of the plants to force bigger tubers) ; and · Minimum fertilizer requirements.
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From page 282... ...
Mint Family Common Names Afrikaans: Wilde aartappel Burkina Faso: fabourama Mali: fabourama English: Livingstone potato, wild potato, country potato, Hausa potato, Madagascar potato, coleus potato, Sudan potato, scrambled eggs, Zulu round potato (S. rotundifolius)
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From page 283... ...
Those from P esculentus are roughly cylindrical, up to 2 cm in diameter and 5 to 10 cm long (some as long as 25 cm have been found in south Africa)
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From page 284... ...
Daylength Sensitivity Recent work shows the South African variety is daylength sensitive with a critical photoperiod of 12.5-13 hours.15 14Allemann, ibid. 15Allemann, ibid.
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From page 285... ...
Nonetheless, in the context of native potato research, they could perhaps provide valuable insight into such things as genetic and physiological effects.
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