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Jicama (Yam bean)

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WARNING: The information on this page has been gathered from   both published and unpublished material, and contains comments and   opinions from people working in the field. CQUniversity cannot guarantee   all the information, and we stress that it is necessary to CHECK WITH   THE SOURCE of the information, before using it to make a business   decision. Please read our disclaimer.


Species: Pachyrrhizus erosus (L.) urban. P. tuberosus and P. ahipa may also be called yam bean and are also cultivated.

Family:

Crop status: New

Varieties

Interspecific hybrids have been bred by Heredia (1996).

In vitro propagation has been conducted (Munoz et al. 1996).

Production

Season: Grown   in autumn and winter in Nayarit, Mexico (Gonzlez Rivas 1996). September   to October is the optimum time for sowing in Hawaii (Paull et al. 1988)   and West Bengal (Sen et al. 1996).

Daylength:   Tuber growth is initiated by decreasing daylength, while increasing   daylength inhibits tuber growth in favour of vine and leaf growth. A   daylength of 11-12 hours at sowing was recorded as a critical point in   Hawaiian studies. Once tubers and flowers begin to grow, stem and leaf   growth cease (Paull et al. 1988).

Inoculation: Trials showed considerable variation in performance of strains of   Bradyrhizobium and Rhizobium on yam bean, and no signs of host   specificity. Bradyrhizobium strains resulted in much larger yam tubers   than Rhizobium (Grum and Sorensen 1996).

Intercropping: Powdered yam bean contains insecticides known to work against rice   weevil Sitophilus oryzae (Bhusan and Ghatak 1991) and rice moth Corcyra   cephalonica Staint (Ghatak and Bhusan 1995). Seed extract also worked   against Callosobruchus analis (Kardinan and Wikardi 1997) and tobacco   caterpillar Spodoptera litura but could not be used as a fumigant (Sahu   and Hameed 1989).

Transplanting: Tubers from transplants have the same fresh weight as direct sown plants, but root diameter is smaller (Fernandez et al. 1996).

Support: Staking had no discernible effect on tuber yield (Sreekumari and Abraham 1983).

Hormonal control: Gibberellic acid enhanced the development of tubers, stems and leaves but inhibited flowering (Zinsou et al. 1987).

Flower removal: Flower   and tuber formation occur almost simultaneously during plant   development. Hence, removal of flowers allows more resources to go to   the tubers. Removal of flowers results in higher yield (Adjahossou and   Ade 1996), biomass production, sugar content (Arevalo 1996a), protein   content (de Oliveira et al. 1999), and improves adaptation to drought   conditions (Diouf et al. 1996). Yield is increased by up to 100%. Due to   the cost of labour, it is most efficient to prune flowers only once,   rather than the 4 times necessary to eliminate flowers totally, as the   single pruning raises tuber growth to almost that of multiple prunings   (Caro and Casillas 1996). Use of chemicals to remove flowers has been   reported as more effective than hand removal (Raychaudhuri et al. 1985),   effective in conjunction with hand removal (Panda and Sen 1995) and not   effective (Mora and Morera 1996).

Flowering: Floral biology for breeding purposes is described by Prasad and Prakash (1973).

Water: Excess rainfall causes lower yields and tuber rot (Vaz et al. 1996).

Nitrogen: There   is no need to add mineral nitrogen to yam bean when plants are   inoculated with selected Bradyrhizobium strains, though urea applied up   to 200 kg/ha did not appear to inhibit nodulation when there was   sufficient P (Cruz et al. 1997). Nitrogen fixation of around 200 kg/ha   was recorded in Mexico over two seasons (Badillo and Castellanos 1996,   Castellanos et al. 1997). These levels were not affected by flower   removal, and were more than twice that fixed by Pachyrrhizus ahipa   (Castellanos et al. 1997).

Nutrition: Addition of P has resulted in highly significant increases in tuber   growth, as has Ca and K when combined with P (Lynd and Purcino 1987).   Stamford et al. (1999) recommended 64 kg/ha P2O5 and 2:1 ratio of K2O   and MgO. Higher doses of K2O (150-200 kg/ha) in 3 applications (0, 30   and 60 days after sowing) resulted in higher market grade tuber yield   and significantly less tuber cracking (Vaillant and Desfontines 1994).

Yield: Yields   averaged 27 t/ha in Nayarit, Mexico between 1988-95 (Gonzlez Rivas   1996). Yields from variety trials in Ecuador were 30-40 t/ha (Arevalo   1996b), and in Venezuela were 20-60 t/ha (Espinoza 1996).

Postharvest

Handling: Careful packing into 22-25 kg crates causes far less bruising than 50-60 kg sacks (Mercado-Silva et al. 1996).

Temperature: Store at 12.5°C (Cantwell et al. 1992), at which respiration should   remain constant throughout storage. Chilling injury symptoms occurred   after 7 days at 10°C or less, with an additional 2 days at 20°C to allow   symptoms to develop, but were not evident for up to 49 days at 15°C   (Bergsma and Brecht 1992). Chilling injury is characterised by decay,   loss of intact root firmness, increased rate of water loss, and brown   discolouration of root pulp (Mercado-Silva

Relative humidity: Optimum is 65-70% (Welby and McGregor 1997).

Shelf life: 1-2   months (Welby and McGregor 1997). Roots were kept under optimal storage   conditions for 5 months with minimal internal quality changes, though   weight loss exceeded 35% (Mercado-Silva 1998).

Sugar content: Total soluble sugars were about 45% of the initial dry weight and   increased in the first three weeks of storage at the correct   temperature, but decreased after the first week at 20°C. Starch   exhibited the opposite effects (Bergsma and Brecht 1992).

Wrapping: Wrapping with PVC film reduces moisture loss by nearly 50% without any   losses due to decay. Sensory evaluations by an untrained panel indicated   no difference between the PVC film-wrapped and paraffin-coated roots in   terms of crunchiness and juiciness, but the PVC film-wrapped roots were   judged to be crunchier and juicier than the controls and sweeter, with a   more typical flavour and aroma than paraffin-coated roots. Paraffin wax   was the most effective treatment in reducing moisture loss but resulted   in the highest losses due to decay. Roots coated with carnauba wax lost   nearly as much moisture as controls (Bergsma and Brecht 1992).

Pests and diseases

The crop is considered to have a low pesticide requirement   (Castellanos et al. 1997), but is highly susceptible to the leafhopper   Empoasca dolichi (Paoli) (Duke et al. 1978)

Quality assessment

Common defects observed in US retail markets include physical damage   (scuffs, abrasions, cuts and cracks), decay on physically damaged or   weakened areas, and internal discolouration. The latter two are chilling   injury, caused by tubers being handled at low temperatures in mixed   load shipments (Cantwell et al. 1992).

Export markets

(click here for exchange rates).

Most roots sold in the USA are imported from Mexico (Cantwell et al. 1992).

Nayarit state in Mexico produced an average of 33 344 t/year from 1220 ha during 1988-95 (Gonzlez Rivas 1996).


  References

Adjahossou, D. F. and Ade, J. (1996). Effects of inflorescence   removal on tuber yield of some accessions of Pachyrhizus erosus (L.)   Urban and P. tuberosus (Lam.) Sprengel. [French]. Second International   Symposium on Tuberous Legumes, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Arevalo T, A. (1996a). Effect of flower removal on the yield of root   tubers of Pachyrhizus erosus (L.) Urban. [Spanish]. Second International   Symposium on Tuberous Legumes, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico .

Arevalo, T. A. (1996b). Performance of cultivars of the genus   Pachyrhizus DC in Ecuador. [Spanish]. Second International Symposium on   Tuberous Legumes, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Badillo, V. and Castellanos, J. Z. (1996). Symbiotic nitrogen   fixation in field conditions in yam beans (Pachyrhizus ahipa (Wedd.)   Parodi and P. erosus (L.) Urban). [Spanish]. Second International   Symposium on Tuberous Legumes, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Bergsma, K. A. and Brecht, J. K. (1992). Postharvest respiration,   moisture loss, sensory analysis and compositional changes in jicama   (Pachyrhizus erosus) roots. Acta Horticulturae (318): 325-332.

Bhusan, T. K. and Ghatak, S. S. (1991). Evaluation of some plant   powders as protectants against rice weevil Sitophilus oryzae Linn.   (Curculionidae: Coleoptera). Environment & Ecology 9(1): 115-117.

Cantwell, M., Orozco, W., Rubatzky, V. and Hernandez, L. (1992).   Postharvest handling and storage of jicama roots. Acta Horticulturae   (318): 333-343.

Caro, V., F. de J. and Casillas, R. D. (1996). Effects of flower   removal on yield of yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus (L.) Urban) in Nayarit,   Mexico. [Spanish]. Second International Symposium on Tuberous Legumes,   Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Castellanos, J. Z., Zapata, F., Badillo, V., Pena-Cabriales, J. J.,   Jensen, E. S. and Heredia-Garcia, E. (1997). Symbiotic nitrogen fixation   and yield of Pachyrhizus erosus (L) urban cultivars and Pachyrhizus   ahipa (wedd) parodi landraces as affected by flower pruning. Soil   Biology & Biochemistry 29(5): 973-981.

Cruz, G. N., Stamford, N. P., Silva, J. A. A. and Chamber-Perez, M.   (1997). Effects of inoculation with Bradyrhizobium and urea application   on nitrogen fixation and growth of yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus) as   affected by phosphorus fertilisers in an acid soil. Tropical Grasslands   31(6): 538-542.

de Oliveira, M. Zilvanda, L. and Bueno, C. R. (1999). Carbohydrates,   proteins and free aminoacids content during the development of tuberous   root on yam beam (Pachyrrhizus tuberosus (Lam.) Spreng.), cultivated at   the floodplain area, Amazonas State, Brazil. [Portuguese]. Acta   Amazonica 29(2): 173-181.

Diouf, O., Roy-Macauley, H. and Annerose, D. J. M. (1996). Tuber-pod   competition and drought responses in yam bean (Pachyrhizus ahipa (Wedd.)   Parodi). Second International Symposium on Tuberous Legumes, Celaya,   Guanajuato, Mexico.

Duke, J. A., Okigbo, B. N. and Reed, C. F. (1978). Resistance of 11   tropical grain legumes to Empoasca dolichi (Paoli). Tropical Grain   Legume Bulletin (11/12): 3-7.

Espinoza, F., Diaz, Y., Argenti, P., Perdomo, E. and Leon, L. (1996).   Preliminary studies of the genus Pachyrhizus DC in Venezuela.   [Spanish]. Second International Symposium on Tuberous Legumes, Celaya,   Guanajuato, Mexico..

Fernandez, M. V., Warid, W. A., Loaiza, J. M., Martinez, J. J. and   Serrano, A. (1996). Effect of planting methods on root characters of   jicama (Pachyrhizus erosus (L.) Urban). Japanese Journal of Tropical   Agriculture 40(1): 26-28.

Ghatak, S. S. and Bhusan, T. K. (1995). Evaluation on the ovicidal   activity of some indigenous plant extracts on rice moth, Corcyra   cephalonica Staint. (Galleriidae: Lepidoptera). Environment &   Ecology 13(2): 284-286.

Gonzlez Rivas, C. (1996). Research and production techniques in   cultivation of yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus (L.) Urban) in the state of   Nayarit, Mexico. [Spanish]. Second International Symposium on Tuberous   Legumes, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Grum, M. and Sorensen, M. (1996). Pachyrhizus DC (yam bean) symbiosis   with Rhizobium bacteria: genetic variation and performance. Second   International Symposium on Tuberous Legumes, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Heredia, Z. A. (1996). Selection of advanced generations of   interspecific crosses of the genus Pachyrhizus DC. [Spanish]. Second   International Symposium on Tuberous Legumes, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Kardinan, A. and Wikardi, E. A. (1997). The prospect of botanical   insecticides on stored food insects management. Biotrop Special   Publication (59): 199-208.

Lynd, J. W. and Purcino, A. A. C. (1987). Effects of soil fertility   on growth, tuber yield, nodulation and nitrogen fixation of yam bean   (Pachyrhizus erosus (L.) Urban) grown on a Typic Eutrustox. Journal of   Plant Nutrition 10(5): 485-500.

Mercado-Silva, E., Cantwell, M., Martinez, M. and Garcia, R. (1996).   Problems in post-harvest operations in yam beans, Pachyrhizus erosus   (L.) Urban, in the central zone of Mexico. [Spanish]. Second   International Symposium on Tuberous Legumes, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Mercado-Silva, E., Garcia, R., Heredia-Zepeda, A. and Cantwell, M.   (1998). Development of chilling injury in five jicama cultivars.   Postharvest Biology & Technology 13(1): 37-43.

Mora, Q., A. and Morera, M. J. A. (1996). Test of elimination of   flowers in a cultivar of yam beans (Pachyrhizus erosus (L.) Urban) using   2,4-D. [Spanish]. Second International Symposium on Tuberous Legumes,   Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Munoz, L. K. P. E. J. C. R. (1996). In vitro propagation of yam beans   (Pachyrhizus erosus (L.) Urban) in Ecuador. [Spanish]. Proceedings of   the 2nd International Symposium on Tuberous Legumes, Celaya, Guanajuato,   Mexico.

Munoz, L., Krogstrup, P., Estrella, J. and Castillo, R. (1996). In   vitro propagation of yam beans (Pachyrhizus erosus (L.) Urban) in   Ecuador. [Spanish]. Second International Symposium on Tuberous Legumes,   Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Panda, P. K. and Sen, H. (1995). Effect of growth regulators on   flowering and tuber yield of yambean. Journal of Root Crops 21(2):   97-101.

Paull, R. E., Chen, N. J. and Fukuda, S. K. (1988). Planting dates   related to tuberous root yield, vine length, and quality attributes of   yam bean. Hortscience 23(2): 326-329.

Prasad, D. and R. Prakash (1973). Floral biology of yam-bean,   Pachyrhizus erosus (L.) Urb. Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences   43(6): 531-535.

Raychaudhuri, M., Suseno, R., Shikata, E., Choopanya, D., Sano, T.,   Sasaki, M., Uyeda, I., Kojima, M., Samad, N. A., Senboku, T.,   Kiratiya-Angul, S., Srithongchai, W., Kittipakorn, K., Prommin, M.,   Deema, N., Purinunsri, M., Chanthrasrikul, A., Balarman, K., Gonzales,   C. I., Attathom, S., Bureekum, S., Monkolasuk, Y., Bhongsatien, S.,   Rienwarakorn, K., Utayunugol, R., Vora-urai, S. and Imperial, J. S.   (1985). Chemical deflowering in yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus) with 2,4-D   spray. Abstracts of papers, annual conference of Indian Society of Weed   Science 57: 57.

Sahu, R. C. and Hameed, S. F. (1989). Effect of Pachyrrhizus erosus   urban seed extracts against tobacco caterpillar, Spodoptera litura F.   Tobacco Research 15(1): 17-20.

Sen, H., Goswami, S. B. and Das, P. K. (1996). Growth and tuber yield   of yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus) as affected by sowing dates. Tropical   tuber crops: problems, prospects and future strategies. Lebanon, USA,   Science Publishers, Inc.: 315-317.

Sreekumari, M. T. and Abraham, K. (1983). Effects of staking and of   inflorescence pruning on the root production of yam bean (Pachyrhizus   erosus Urban). Tropical Grain Legume Bulletin (27): 35-37.

Stamford, N. P., Santos Cedes Medeiros, R. and de Freitas, A. D. S.   (1999). Effect of phosphorus, potassium and magnesium fertilization on   yam bean inoculated with Bradyrhizobium and growing in an alic latosol   soil [Portuguese]. Pesquisa Agropecuaria Brasileira 34(10): 1831-1838.

Vaillant, V. and Desfontaines, L. (1994). Effect of levels and   methods of potassium application on tuber yield and cracking behaviour   of yambean (Pachyrrhizus erosus Rich). Journal of Potassium Research   10(3): 271-273.

Vaz, F., Silva, J. B. V. and da Matos, M. C. (1996). Yield of yam   bean, Pachyrhizus ahipa (Wedd.) Parodi, in a Mediterranean climate.   Second International Symposium on Tuberous Legumes, Celaya, Guanajuato,   Mexico.

Welby, E. M. and McGregor, B. (1997). Agricultural Export   Transportation Handbook. USDA Agricultural Handbook 700, United States   Department of Agriculture (URL:   http://www.ams.usda.gov/tmd/export/index.htm).

Zinsou, C., Venthou-Dumaine, A. and Vansuyt, G. (1987). Growth and   development of Pachyrhizus erosus Urban. I. Effects of gibberellic acid   and chlorocholone chloride (CCC) under short-day conditions. [French].   Agronomie 7(9): 677-683.