Suitable target environment
- Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), taro (Colocassia esculenta), greater yams (Dioscoria alata), yambean (Pachyrrhizus erosus), elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeonifolius), cassava (Manihot esculenta) and arrowroot (Maranta arundinaceae) are major tropical tuber crops grown in Odisha under different ecosystem.
- Among these sweet potato and cassava are cultivated as subsistence food crop whereas colocasia, yams, elephant foot yam and yam bean are grown as a commercial crop in major agro-climatic regions of Odisha. The short duration crop like sweet potato and yam beans can be used in the prevailing rice-based cropping system.
- Elephant foot yam and yams are a good choice in nutritional garden, back yard garden, rice field bunds, orchards, and garden land for increasing the farm income.
- Cultivation of tropical tuber crops will ensure food, nutrition, and livelihood security for small and marginal farmers under the changing scenario of climate.
- Crops like sweet potato and cassava can be grown profitably in marginal soil under rainfed ecosystem, whereas in waterlogged soil colocasia is a good choice.