Feeding the World
Potato: The Staple food for the Next Decade
The demand for potatoes continue to increase because of the growing population in the country; rise in the number of fast food chains, hotels and restaurants and the presence of a local potato-based snack food manufacturers. Potatoes are processed into numerous value-added products such as french fries, chips, strings, flour among others making it a high value cash crop. The unmarketable and inedible tubers are often fed to household livestock and the vines used as feed for animals.
The International Year of the Potato has raised awareness of the potato’s fundamental importance as a staple food of humanity. But it also had a very practical aim: to promote development of sustainable potato-based systems that enhance the well-being of producers and consumers and help realize the potato's full potential as a "food of the future".
The potato should be a major component in strategies aimed at providing nutritious food for the poor and hungry. It is ideally suited to places where land is limited and labour is abundant, conditions that characterize much of the developing world. The potato produces more nutritious food more quickly, on less land, and in harsher climates than any other major crop - up to 85 percent of the plant is edible human food, compared to a
Earthkeepers
The Ibalois and Kalanguyas of Lusod, Kabayan, Benguet
A long time ago, people did not know the real value of the cashew tree. In fact, people called this plant “the lazy man’s tree” as the only use they could think of was using the seeds for a board game called “sunka”. Later did the people realize that the cashew plant is actually more than just a “lazy man’s tree. People learned they can actually make a living out of this seemingly innocent plant. They later called the cashew tree, “The golden tree”.
Click on the button to the right and learn more about this tree.
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