The term root and tuber crops is a very general "catch-all" for a wide cross-section of subterranean storage organs of which there are approximately 38root, 23 tuber, 14 rhizome, 11 corm and 10 bulb crops.
Roots and tubers comprised significant components of the diet and had the advantage for hunter-gatherer societies in that they were available over extended periods of time due to their ability to be left in situ until needed.
With the advent of agriculture, cultivated root and tuber crops became increasingly critical sources of food with the potato, cassava and sweetpotato representing the 3