Last workweek I created a picture on the top 10 tropical staple crops .
It ask me way too retentive to drop a line and edit , so I hope you feel it incredibly helpful .
Let ’s run through them here , along with a few notes .

10: Grain Corn
Stick to dent maize varieties in warm , red-hot climates . Corn needs decent soil and plenty of nitrogen but it ’s the best grain for yield and processing . Much easier to treat than small cereal like oats , rye whisky and wheat . You involve to nixtamalize it with lime or eat it as part of a balanced dieting to avoid pellagra , a niacin inadequacy which will mess up you up .
9: Pumpkins/Winter Squash
These are one of my favorite plants to mature . In the Torrid Zone , most of the pumpkin vine grown areC. moschatatypes , though there are others too . Pumpkins take up a passel of quad but make big , storable fruit . On the downside , they ’re not that calorie dense and it ’s easy to get sick of eating pumpkins .
8: Breadfruit
Breadfruit is toothsome and fertile , plus it ’s a tree diagram so you do n’t need to plow and imbed like you do with annual staple . They are tough Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree though they ca n’t take any cold . The downside is that the Artocarpus altilis come in seasons instead of spread out through the class .
7: Coconuts
So long as you do n’t dilute through your hired hand while opening them , coconuts are very in force . They are high in good fat and nutrients , turn easy even in awfully soil , plus require very fiddling employment to maintain . The fronds are also useful for crafts , thatching , baskets and more . The downside of coconut meat is they are a pain to open .
6: Bananas and Plantains
It ’s a yield ! No , it ’s a starch !
Unripe bananas and plantains can be misrepresent and eat like potatoes or fry like chip , making them a in effect way to replete in the thermic fissure . Though they are non - seasonal , they do produce better in the rainy time of year unless you keep them water . And they care a heap of urine ! They also like a lot of nitrogen . Plant them around the infected armored combat vehicle and you ’re golden .
5: Malanga and Taro
Malanga , AKA dasheen , has eatable leaves ( when cooked ONLY ) and tubers ( ditto ) . Its cousin taro necessitate more prepare to neutralize the oxalic Elvis in the radical . They care a pile of water and get like sens in a drainage ditch or shallow pond .
4: Pigeon Peas
Pigeon pea are a very easy - to - spring up nitrogen - furbish up tropic staple crop . The dry peas are a well source of protein and the younger peas can be eaten like common green peas . If you have marginal ground , hack holes in it and plant pigeon peas . The downside is that shelling the peas takes way too long . I also happen them a bit hard to stomach .
3: Cassava
casava is a sugar bazooka . It ’s productive even in risky grunge and has about twice the calories of white-hot potatoes . Unfortunately , it ’s almost barren of genuine nutrition . It ’s just a blast of carbs . This makes it great for a crisis but not good to wipe out all the meter . The leaves are edible when boiled and are nutrient - plenteous , so it makes sense to eat up the leave-taking and roots together .
2: Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes have edible greens and roots , produce abundantly in a small quad , plus they ’re high in calories and nourishment . An excellent choice for survival and non - seasonal .
1: True Yams
Yes , I am prejudiced . Yams ( Dioscorea spp . ) are my favorite staple crop . The spirit is good , they take almost no work to mature , they ’ll subsist on the margins of a nutrient woodland and they ’ll even develop and raise when guerilla plant in the woods . Grow some – you ’ll be impressed .
Conclusion
Any combination of these ten tropical staple crop could keep you animated in a crisis . I urge planting more than one of them for variation in diet , plus redundancy . IF casava does ill one yr , you ’ll still have pigeon peas . If the yautia does n’t get enough water , maybe the corn will derive through . experimentation and see what grows best in your area .
Did I neglect one of your favored tropical raw material ? pass on me a musical note and countenance me know .
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