Strategies of development of environmentally friendly industrial sweetpotato on marginal lands by molecular breeding = 분자육종을 통한 조건불리지역 친환경 산업용 고구마 개발 전략

Abstract

The food self-support rate on the basis of cereals in Korea is approximately 27%, which will threaten the national food security. The dramatic increase in population accompanied by rapid industrialization in developing countries has caused imbalances in the supply of food and energy. To cope with these global crises over food and energy supplies as well as environmental problems, it is urgently required to develop new environmentally friendly industrial crop varieties to be grown on marginal lands including desertification areas for sustainable development. Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) ranks seventh in annual production among food crops in the world. Its wide adaptability on marginal lands and rich nutritional content provide a high potential for preventing malnutrition and enhancing food security in the developing countries. In addition, sweetpotato can be developed as a bioreactor to produce valuable industrial materials including bio-ethanol, functional feed and antioxidants by molecular breeding. In this respect, we focus on the molecular breeding of sweetpotato with multi-function on marginal lands. The strategies for development of environmentally friendly industrial sweetpotato will be introduced and discussed.