MANILA, Philippines -- Finally, people in high places are taking a more serious stance on the lowly camote and all the other rootcrops that have long been ignored or neglected by the Department of Agriculture. At the recent launching of the project on rootcrops in Pasig City, it was mentioned that 65 percent of the budget of DA is spent on rice and corn. Practically nothing on root crops. If that is true, something is really wrong.

Hopefully, the root and tuber crops will now be taken more seriously with the launching last June 17 in a hotel in Pasig City the project on Root and Tuber Crops for Food Security (RTC-FS) in Asia-Pacific. The project was launched jointly by the Centro Internaconal de la Papa (International Potato Center) headed by Dr. Pamela Anderson and the Philippine Rootcrop Research and Training Center headed by Dr. Julieta Roa. It is sponsored by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

 The gathering was marked by presentations by a panel of experts, local and foreign, on recent advances in RTCs research and development. Aside from the speeches, there was also an exhibit of a wide range of RTC products and innovations by community-based enterprises and large business companies from various countries like Indonesia, India, Philippines, China and even Peru.

One of the speakers was Sana Jatta, RTC-FS project task manager and China country program manager of IFAD. He talked on the food security challenges in the Asia-Pacific. He noted that more investment is needed in agriculture. In the past years, there have been declines in investment in agriculture. Investments in agriculture by small-scale entrepreneurs are most welcome. They are more effective in achieving food security among a bigger number of the population. If more households will undertake food production projects, this will ensure access to food by more people.

Dr. Gelia Castillo, national scientist and rural sociologist, batted for food security through crop diversification. People should not only grow rice. They should grow other crops and livestock at the same time. She particularly mentioned the potentials of camote roots as well as its tender tops as source of a healthy diet.

Of course there are many other root and tuber crops that could be promoted for production and processing other than camote. More research could be done not only on production but also on processing, marketing and other aspects such as development of new products from the so-called treasures underground.

The root and tuber crops include camote, taro, cassava, ubi, arrowroot, tugue, singcamas, yacon, potato, curcuma, amorphophallus, karot and other little known species.

A wide variety of food products from rootcrops were exhibited at the gathering that was attended by more than 150 people. One of the products with commercial potential if it could be packaged attractively is the Camarind candy produced by Claire Basa of the Mayantoc Rural Improvement Club in Tarlac. This is made of a blend

 of cooked camote and ripe tamarind flesh used in coating a tamarind seed. It has a nice tamarind flavor with added nutritive value from the camote. The product could become a bestseller with a really attractive packaging.

Percival de Villa of Albay showed us semi-processed ready-to-cook frozen sweet potato roots. The cubes are ready for mixing with rice for cooking. This will make it very convenient for those who want to add camote to their rice. They don’t have to peel and slice camote, which could be inconvenient or cumbersome for homemakers who are always rushing.

Root and tuber crops are really very versatile. They are made into wine, tea, cakes and pastries, soap, noodle soup, chips, cassava gum, pasta, pearl sago and many others.