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1. Roots and tubers are important foods for people living in warm, tropical climates. In these crops, the roots or underground stems store food reserves and become swollen.
2. The most important root and tuber crops are cassava, sweet potato, yams, taro (cocoyam) and tannia (new cocoyam).
3. In Booklet No. 16, you learned about growing different kinds of roots and tubers. In this booklet, we shall deal with two root and tuber crops that are most important.
Cassava and sweet potato
4. Cassava roots and sweet potato tubers are good energy foods. When you eat them, they give energy to your body. They are good energy feeds for animals as well.
5. If you have extra roots and tubers that you can spare, it is a good idea to use them to feed animals.
6. By feeding farm- grown roots and tubers:
- You don't have to purchase energy feeds from outside.
- Feed from outside is always expensive. You can save money by using cassava and sweet potatoes that are produced on your farm.
- When you are using farm- produced feeds, you can plan to have more animals. Then you will have more meat and milk for your family to eat or to sell.
Meat and milk
7. In Africa, cassava is a staple food. It is used mainly for human consumption. Only those roots that are unsuitable for human consumption are used to feed animals.
8. In many countries, more and more people are growing cassava and sweet potatoes for the feeding of animals.
9. In Thailand, cassava is an important crop. Cassava is grown mainly for the production of animal feed.
10. Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Malaysia, Indonesia, Paraguay and the Philippines are some of the countries where people are beginning to use more and more cassava in animal feeding.
11. Over 80 percent of the world sweet potato crop comes from the People's Republic of China. Chinese farmers use sweet potatoes to feed pigs.
12. In many areas, people do not know how to process cassava roots and sweet potato tubers and keep them for a long time before feeding them to animals.
13. In this booklet, you will learn about the feed value and the processing methods of cassava and sweet potatoes.
14. In Booklet No. 46 you will learn how you can use the processed materials to feed animals.
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