Shree Padre, Kasargod
They grow underground, in great abundance and in a range of climates. If tapped right and added to the common man’s daily diet, tuber crops could end much of this nation’s worry on the food security front. This was the principal takeaway from a tuber exhibition organized recently in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district.
“A tuber like toona genasu (huttari genasu, dioscorea elata) can feed a whole family for a month. Of course, no one can eat the same vegetable at every meal. But our apprehension about food scarcity is unfounded,” says Vasantha Kaje, a farmer and software engineer from Manchikaje.
It was Vasantha’s farming family that, without any government help, hosted the unique programme, balu upakari gadde tarakari (tuber crops are very useful). Everyone liked the tuber-dominated breakfast, lunch and snacks. Idli was prepared from toona genasu. Arrowroot yielded a sweet dish. Payasa was made from suvarna gadde (elephant foot yam, amorphophallus paeoniifolius).
About 40 varieties of tubers brought by farmers were exhibited. On show were rare tubers like adike kesu, motte kesu (both colocasia species, the former looks like arecanut, the latter like eggs) and balli batate (vine potato). “In my childhood days,” recalls 76-year-old KS Kamath, “vendors selling cooked tubers were very common. I would buy them from an aged woman at Kadri Mangalore. It cost only an anna – one sixteenth of a rupee – to fill the belly. But once land reforms came, tubers were slowly relegated to history.”
The love for modern ready food items and changing lifestyles hastened the disappearance of tubers from the common man’s platter. “Now we think only of potato as a tuber crop,” laments AP Chandrashekhar, an organic farmer of Mysore.
The half-century-old Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI), an ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) institution, is located in Thiruvananthapuram. CTCRI conducts research exclusively on tropical tuber crops. In the early 1970s, the Institute released many hybrid cassava varieties and developed production technologies. They also saw the need for a separate body for popularizing tuber crops. So the Indian Society for Root Crops (ISRC) was created in 1973.
Dr S Ramanathan, principal scientist at CTCRI and president of ISRC, says: “Tuber crops are in general rain fed. They can grow even in low fertility conditions. Tuber crops have higher biological efficiency. With their higher carbohydrate and calorie content, they can substitute cereals.”
According to National Sample Survey statistics, in Kerala, per capita consumption of cassava as a ‘cereal substitute’ for a month during 1999-2000 was 0.96 kg in rural areas and 0.45 kg in urban areas. The corresponding all-India statistics were 0.05 kg and 0.03 kg respectively. Nare gadde (kand in Gujarati, dioscorea pentaphylla), a narrow elongated tuber, was favoured by the working class in the past. It grows in the wild. Says Vasantha Kaje, “I came to know about this variety of tuber at the festival. It seems that our own hilly land has quintals of this tuber. All these years, I was unaware that so much food source was hidden around my home.”
Shivakumar CK, a civil engineer and wild fruit enthusiast from Madikeri, consumes about 16 varieties of tuber every year. He himself grows eight of them. “If we collect the ancient knowledge and put it to use for four months a year – from November to February – we can depend on root crops,” he says.
Tuber crops have wide variety. Says Shivakumar: “I have seen an unusual variety locally called as handi genasu (pig potato) that comes to Dandeli market. Like balli batate, this tuber grows both under and above ground.”
The Harangi backwater area in Kodagu in Shivakumar’s district has large areas under tuber crops. Tapioca and suvarna gadde are the two main crops here. Biju, 39, one such farmer, grows root crops on leased lands apart from his own. His annual production of suvarna gadde alone is around 150 tonnes! According to Shivakumar, root crops are seldom contaminated by pesticides.
In the last decade, CTCRI scientists have undertaken periodic field visits and surveys in several states to document potential pockets of
tuber cultivation. “In such regions,” says Dr Ramanathan, “these crops are raised intensively as market-oriented commercial crops. They get high yields and bag higher net returns from tuber than from any other crop of that locality”.
He says: “It is estimated that in the 21st century, about one-fourth of the world population will be in the grip of severe poverty. With the burgeoning population in India, we might have to import 40 million tonnes of food by 2030. In this context, tuber crops assume a lot of importance.”
Argues Chandrashekhar: “A concerted campaign like the ones for millets and jackfruit is needed.” It might be better to make women the target of the tuber fests. If they start adding it to their shopping list, more growers would invariably emerge.”
Though other tuber crops still remain by and large neglected, tapioca (cassava, kappa in Malayalam) utilization in Kerala has increased. “Of late production in Kerala has decreased considerably. Rubber has taken over the earlier tapioca area. Tamil Nadu, a recent entrant into tapioca production, is diverting its produce to starch factories,” observes Ushakumari S., an agriculture specialist of Thanal, the Thiruvananthapuram-based Public Interest Research, Advocacy, Education and Action Trust, “But then, more and more upscale hotels and restaurants are now making tapioca dishes. The per capita consumption has gone up.”
According to Shivakumar, the Soliga tribals in Biligiri Rangana Betta of Karnataka have been conserving a few rare tuber varieties. “Similarly, in Kodagu, a few farmers have planted tuber crops. However, such efforts aren’t documented nor is there a network between such silent conservationists,” he says.
It is evident that only an awakening at the grassroots level can bring tubers to dining tables around the country.
Source: http://www.civilsocietyonline.com/pages/Details.aspx?289
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