Translations:Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Household Arts/Cultural Food Preparation/8/en

Sweet potatoes very early became popular in the islands of the Pacific, from Japan to Polynesia. One reason is that they were favored as an emergency crop that could be relied on if other crops failed due to typhoon flooding and the like. They are featured in many favorite dishes in Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines , and other island nations. Indonesia, Vietnam, India, and some other Asian countries are also large sweet potato growers. Uganda (the third largest grower after Indonesia), Rwanda, and some other African countries also grow a large crop which is an important part of their peoples' diets. North and South America, the original home of the sweet potato, together grow less than three percent of the world's supply. Europe has only a very small sweet potato production, mostly in Portugal.