The market of topinambur and products of its processing

The topinambur and potatoes belong to the most efficient multi-purpose crops. The topinambur is characterized by a high reproductive ability and a tendency to occupy new territories. It is vulgarly supposed to be an obstinate weed. In proper agronomic conditions it can be cultivated as well as potatoes without fear that it will supplant other grown nearby crops. The Topinambur is a valuable culture, a source of inulin, fructose and pectin. Green mass of the Topinambur is characterized by a high content of complex carbohydrate (fructose, glucose, sucrose, fructose, etc.). Alcohol, ethanol, organic fodder and nurture additives are produced from the green mass of the Topinambur. The Topinambur has also found its application in the production of jams, coffee drinks, ice cream, fodder yeast, lactic acid, vinegar, propionic acid, mannitol, and pectin. In future we can talk about the production of biocellulose and coal-plastic from Topinambur. The Topinambur gives the greatest biomass of all crops cultivated in the Russian Federation - up to 200 tons per hectare. The yield of Topinambur in Russia on average is 50-70 tons per hectare of tubers +30-70 tons per hectare of high quality green mass. Selection of the Topinambur is under improvement, the processes of its cultivation are still not developed, and that requires fundamental research. Promising directions are: breeding of Topinambur for the improvement of quantity and quality of green mass, increasing the yield of tubers, optimizing their shape to allow the use of mechanical cleaning and further processing of tubers, reducing the amount of waste during processing. The authors put forward a hypothesis about the necessity of finding such combinations of promising breeds which will allow to maximize the commercial success of the production.