Perennial Staple Crops

Staple crops, which have large amounts of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, provide the bulk of calories in people’s diets. Perennial crops, that can yield for many years in environmentally beneficial long-lived systems, also produce staples foods, but their agronomic and nutritional properties haven’t been considered synthetically in comparison to annual staples. The data shared here consists of the following: 1. Classification of perennial staple crops according to their nutritional categories and cultivation status (see species list). 2. Reported yields potential of 51 perennial staple crops, only 15 of which are well characterized in existing global datasets. 3. Nutritional content for three macronutrients and nine micronutrients for the 51 perennial staple crops 4. Data on carbon stocks for perennial staples crops This data was used for the following paper: Kreitzman, M., Toensmeier, E., Chan, K.M.A., Smukler, S., and Ramankutty, N. (2020). Perennial Staple Crops: Yields, Distribution, and Nutrition in the Global Food System. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 4.https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.588988