South African Journal of Botany 2004, 70(1): 60–66 Copyright © NISC Pty Ltd Printed in South Africa — All rights reserved SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY EISSN 1727–9321 Sustainable production of root and tuber crops (potato, sweet potato, indigenous potato, cassava) in southern Africa J Allemann1*, SM Laurie, S Thiart and HJ Vorster ARC–Roodeplaat Vegetable and Ornamental Plant Institute, Private Bag X239, Pretoria 0001, South Africa 1 Current address: Department of Soil, Crop and Climate Sciences, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of the Free State, PO Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa * Corresponding author, e-mail:
[email protected] Received 15 October 2003, accepted 17 October 2003 Africa, including South Africa, is faced with a problem of of healthy planting material are the most important lim- increasing rural poverty that leads to increasing urban- iting factors in production. African Cassava Mosaic isation, joblessness, crime, food insecurity and malnu- Disease (CMD) caused by a virus, is a problem in grow- trition. Root and tuber crops such as sweet potato and ing cassava. Plant biotechnology applications offer a potato, as well as cassava and indigenous potato are number of sustainable solutions. Basic applications important crops for food security. The latter are also such as in vitro genebanking where large numbers of important due to their tolerance to marginal conditions. accessions can be maintained in a small space, meris- Potato and sweet potato are of great economic value in tem cultures to produce virus-free plants and mass South Africa, with well-organised marketing chains and, propagation of popular cultivars in order to make plant- for potato, a large processing industry.