New Delhi, March 10 -- Thousands of years of indigenous farming myths and cultural traditions have been key to the survival of the cassava crop (the source of tapioca), a new study has found.

Cassava (also known as 'Yuca' or 'Manioc') is a root vegetable that feeds around a billion people worldwide. For this reason, it is often known as 'bread of the tropics'

The crop is grown worldwide via stem cuttings, a method that produces new cassava plants that are genetic clones of the original. But clonal planting means the plant might have low genetic diversity, which may make it vulnerable to diseases.

However, when researchers from the University of Warwick, the Smithsonian Institution and Embrapa (Brazilian agricultural research) analysed...