Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a vital crop for millions, serving as a staple food and a key resource for industries ranging from starch production to bioethanol. Known for its adaptability to poor soils and unpredictable rainfall, cassava has earned its place as a "future crop" in the face of climate change. However, its sensitivity to cold stress has limited its potential in temperate regions, leaving a gap in understanding how this resilient plant can thrive in colder climates.

This book brings together the latest research on cassava's response to cold stress, exploring its physiological, genetic, and metabolic mechanisms. Drawing on insights from agronomy and biotechnology, it examines the possibilities of developing cold-tolerant cultivars using the genetic diversity found in international germplasm banks. The authors also discuss practical strategies to scale up cassava production in new regions, offering hope for expanded cultivation and industrial use.

Ideal for researchers, plant breeders, and policymakers, Underlying Mechanisms of Cassava Cold Tolerance highlights the untapped potential of this crop. By addressing one of its greatest challenges, this book opens the door to a more sustainable and food-secure future.

Prof. Dr. Virgilio Gavicho Uarrota is from Mozambique, is an agronomic engineer at Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique) with an MSc in Biotechnology and a PhD in Plant Genetic Resources from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil). Dr. Uarrota is currently an Assistant Professor at Universidad de O’Higgins. Lecturer of Plant Physiology, Seed Production, Horticulture I, Plant Propagation and Nursery Management, and Statistics for Agronomic and Environmental Engineering at the Institute of Agri-Food, Animal and Environmental Sciences (ICA3). He took up his third postdoctoral position in the Department of Postharvest and Industrialization, Faculty of Agronomy, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Quillota, Chile. His first postdoctoral position was in biotechnology and biosciences with focus on bioinformatics and chemometrics, and his second postdoctoral position was in crop production with research line in physiology of crop plants. He has over 8 years of experience in teaching mathematics, biology, and physics and more than 13 years of research experience in plant biochemistry, metabolomics, and chemometrics. Dr. Virgilio Uarrota has participated as collaborator professor in plant biochemistry, crop production physiology, and physiology and biochemistry of seed development, and applied multivariate statistics at Universidad Tecnica de Manabí (Ecuador), Ecophysiology, Plant Propagation and seedling nursery and Biotechnological tools applied to agronomy. Dr. Uarrota has received the Twas-Associateship Scheme Project as visiting researcher (2013 and 2017) at Unisa and at the International Centre of Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). He is a reviewer of many international journals, and has authored and co-authored over 40 research papers in high impact factor international journals, and more than 8 books and chapters with Springer, CRC, and Burleigh Dodds publishing. He has co-supervised 1 MSc student and participated in more than 10 examination committees of PhD and MSc students. Dr. Uarrota has delivered many short courses in data mining and an introduction to multivariate statistics, and he is an editorial board member of the journal Computational Biology and Bioinformatics and International Journal of Food Science and Biotechnology. He is also Guest Editor of Horticulturae Journal and Frontiers in Plant Science. Dr Uarrota is also a section Editor of “Revista Agropecuaria Catarinense” Journal and Supervisor of 04 Graduate thesis in Agronomy at Universidad de O’Higgins.