The Potato: Botany, Production And Uses

Potatoes are a staple crop around the world. Covering all aspects of botany, production and uses, this book presents a comprehensive discussion of the most important topics for potato researchers and professionals. It assesses the latest research on plant growth such as tuber development, water use and seed production, covers all aspects of pest management and reviews postharvest issues such as storage, global markets, and of course, nutritional value and flavour.A gradual increase in global potato production will help address future food supply and nutrition issues, especially when combined with modern breeding techniques. The major focus of many potato breeding programmes is to improve yield and quality while using fewer production resources, such as water, fertilizer, and land, than current varieties. These programmes are also focused on identifying varieties with resistance to major diseases and insect pests in order to reduce the need for pesticides, thereby maintaining or improving the health of the environment. Advances in marker-assisted selection, gene mapping, and genomics have allowed breeders to identify desirable and undesirable traits in new cultivars more quickly; improving the chances of finding superior varieties while reducing the time it takes to get them to market. In conjunction with modern breeding efforts, the industry is continuously improving production, storage, processing, and marketing operations to offer consumers high-quality, nutritious potatoes year-round. This book discusses many of these items and explains the origin of the domesticated potato, its uses, nutritional contributions, production, storage and markets, plant anatomy, physiology and development, pest identification and management, and traditional and biotechnological cultivar development techniques. By incorporating intensive literature review with the applied expertise of the authors, this book is designed to educate and enlighten consumers, students, growers, industry personnel, and the scientific community.