Tapioca – a vital food crop with so many uses
MANIHOT esculenta is better known to us as tapioca or ubi kayu. It belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae and is actually native to Central and South America. However, it has long been successfully introduced throughout Asia, Africa and the Pacific. Today tapioca, which is also known as cassava, has become a very important food and industrial crop throughout the globe.
Did you know that tapioca ranks fourth among staple crops, with a global production of about 160 million tons per year? Besides the root, the plant’s young tender leaves are also used as a potherb, containing high levels of protein and vitamins C and A.
One advantage of tapioca is that this plant grows very rapidly in any soil and even in extreme dry conditions. In many regions with high levels of poverty, this is a subsistence crop that is a vital supplement to the daily diet. However, this root crop has also become an important delicacy for eateries and restaurants too.
Locally we know that hydrocyanic acid or cyanogenic glucosides in tapioca need to be destroyed through the cooking process. In fact, all parts of the plant are poisonous, hence the need to remove the skin from the roots and boiling them in water. Local production In Sarawak, there were in the past several attempts to grow tapioca on a large scale for animal feed manufacturing in Sarikei. However, this faced many problems due to transportation in peat land areas.
There were also some earlier attempts by the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) to grow tapioca in Roban, Saratok as well as Mukah on a commercial basis.
However, much of the Sarawak’s tapioca is still from hill padi land – planted after the padi has been harvested by subsistence farmers. Check any market and you are likely to see a lot of demand for this crop for home kitchens.
It was estimated that 2,444 ha of tapioca was grown nationwide in 2011 with a yield of over 41,000 metric tonnes. The states growing the most tapioca are Johor, Selangor, Perak, and Kelantan.
Due to market demand, a new variety called Ubi Sri Pontian was released for making tapioca chips. Other popular varieties are Yellow Variety, White Variety and Medan Variety. Propagation Propagation of this plant can be done by seeds and cuttings. Woody cuttings are planted upright in the soil with the sloping end facing upwards. Good cuttings can be taken from mature wood stems that are around 10 months old. Use a sharp cut on an angle as this would be better to prevent end rot. The length of the cut should be just 20 to 30 centimetres, with a minimum of three to six buds.
Bury half of the length in soil, leaving the buds to sprout new shoots within two months. Cuttings should be planted at a distance of around 100 centimetres apart.
In order for the plants to thrive, ensure that it does not have to compete with weeds for nutrients. Add NPK fertiliser to maintain good growth. It is entirely possible to have permanent cultivation on the same plot if there is an adequate and correct balance of NPK fertiliser supplied each season of cropping.
There are fewer pests and diseases in Malaysia compared to where the plant originated in South America. Here we have leaf spots and leaf blight caused by Cercospora and Xanthomonas. There is also white root disease caused by Rigidoporus lignosus, but this can be controlled by removing the source of infestation. Plant quarantine is important for the future of this crop. Multiple uses Tapioca actually provides a major source of calories because of its high starch content. With minimum maintenance, the crop can still be harvested in six months.
The starch is used as a binding agent, for making cookies, bread, doughnuts, bagels, tapioca pearls and savouries. It can also be used for various industrial purposes such as for manufacturing paper, textiles, as well as monosodium glutamate (MSG), which we know is an important flavouring agent. As mentioned tapioca makes tasty chips.
Extracted juice can be made into a syrup or fermented to produce a liquor called kasiri.
In the livestock industry, cassava is an important ingredient for feed manufacturing for ruminant animals such as cattle.
Modern biodegradable plastic is made from the starch. This may go a long way to reduce some of the 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags used globally.
Perhaps you might like to add this very useful plant to your home vegetable garden.
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Happy gardening.