**3. Challenges facing common starch sources and way outs**

Starch is the basis of our food and industrial economy, but the food situation in most developing tropical countries is alarmingly worsening owing to increasing population, fragmented farms with rudimentary technologies, poor pre-harvest and postharvest farm practices and shortage of fertile land [11, 24, 108]. The shortage of food supply has resulted into a high incidence of hunger and malnutrition [12, 13]. It also affected the demand for starch as food, pharmaceutical and industrial uses coupled with the need to attain self-sufficiency in starch production.

However, self-sufficiency in starch production could be attained if the following suggestions described below are given utmost attention:

