Performing Department
Experiment Station
Non Technical Summary
Taro breeding programs to improve yield, disease resistance, salt tolerance and nutritional value have been ongoing in the tropics and subtropics for many decades. Taro is a crop normally propagated by vegetative means. A few preferred varieties usually dominate farmer's fields and other varieties, if not replanted often enough, can be lost over a relatively short period of time, resulting in limited genetic diversity. A taro leaf blight epidemic in the Samoan islands in 1993 resulted in the total loss of all taro varieties on the islands at the time. To improve food security, especially with the increasing effects of pest/disease pressure and climate change, continuous development of new varieties through conventional cross breeding methods (with parent material from a wide geographic area) and evaluation of new varieties is needed.Taro is a staple food crop in American Samoa, Independent Samoa and many other areas of the Asia-Pacific region and Africa. A taro leaf blight (TLB) epidemic in 1993 resulted in the complete loss of Samoans' most important food crop, independent Samoa's largest agricultural export, and all traditional taro varieties. By the mid to late 1990's, several TLB resistant taro varieties from Micronesia and the Philippines had been introduced to the Samoan islands, but yield and eating quality were not what the Samoan population were accustomed to. At that time, independent Samoa began a taro breeding program aimed at producing TLB resistant varieties with higher yields and with eating quality more acceptable to the Samoan population, with the goal of increasing production for local needs and eventually the export market. Work in American Samoa, beginning in 1999, evaluated the TLB resistance of several taro varieties from Asia and the Pacific. Beginning in 2013, taro leaf blight resistant varieties selected from those evaluations, along with resistant varieties from the breeding program in Independent Samoa, were used as parents in a taro breeding program at the American Samoa Community College Division of Community and Natural Resources (ASCC-ACNR). Initial screening of the many varieties produced from these crosses is ongoing, and varieties that appear promising need propagation and thorough evaluation before being released to farmers, taro breeders and germplasm collections.In 2014, wetland taro farmers in Aunu'u, American Samoa noticed decreased growth of the currently available TLB resistant varieties. Investigation by ASCC-ACNR found electrical conductivity levels of 4.51 mS/cm from the eastern areas of the wetland compared to 1.07 mS/cm from the rest of the wetland. The cause of this high salinity needs further investigation, but projected sea level rise with global climate change portend continued high salinity affecting this and other wetland taro production areas. As a result, there is a need to evaluate newly developed varieties from the ASCC-ACNR taro breeding program and other breeding programs for salt tolerance.The project will employ a combination of field trials, laboratory assays, and consumer preference assessments to evaluate and characterize disease resistance, yield, eating quality, nutritional value, and salt tolerance of the taro varieties produced from the ASCC-ACNR breeding program. Results will be disseminated to farmers and consumers through a series of workshops and via local media and documented in ASCC-ACNR technical reports. Workshops will also include information on the health benefits of traditional starch crops over white rice and methods of minimal value adding as a marketing strategy to make taro more available and convenient to prepare for the consumer.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
100%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
Goals:The purpose of this project is to identify and distribute improved taro varieties that will allow increased production and consumption of agronomically and nutritionally superiortaro in American Samoa. This will be done by evaluation by field trials and workshops where results of the trials will be shared with taro farmers and the community and planting material will be distributed. The major achievement we would like to accomplish will be the identification, distribution and farmer/community acceptance of new taro varieties that are taro leaf blight (TLB) resistant, salt tolerant and have improved yield and eating quality.Objectives:Research: Evaluation of newly developed taro varieties for taro leaf blight resistance, salt tolerance, nutritional composition, eating quality, and yield through Randomized Complete Block Design trials, nutritional analysis and taste tests. Four RCBD trials of 10 varieties per trial will be conducted in dryland conditionsfollowed by 2 RCBD variety trials with 20 varieties per trial in wetland conditions. Four taste tests will be conducted to evaluated eating quality. Varieties with dark yellow, orange and purple corm color will be analyzed for nutritional composition.Outreach/education: Four workshops introducing the newly selected varieties to farmers and community. Workshops will also include information on nutritional/health benefits of traditional starch crops over white rice and methods of minimal value adding as a marketing strategy to make taro more available and convenient to prepare for the consumer.Produce technical report identifying new varieties and their characteristics.Assess acceptance of new varieties by follow up surveys and farm visits.
Project Methods
Procedures:1.1 Randomized complete block design trials to evaluate TLB resistance; salt tolerance (Aunu'u wetlands); and yield will be conducted. Taro variety "Lalelei o Samoa" from Independent Samoa's taro breeding program will be used as the control. Trials will be conducted as sufficient propagation material becomes available.1.2 Nutritional composition analysis will be done on variety corm samples sent to the University of Hawaii at Manoa Food Science and Human Nutrition department. Since many of the new varieties have yellow, orange and purple corm flesh, phenolic acids, anthocyanins and carotenoid levels are of interest.1.3 Eating quality will be evaluated by taste tests conducted within the local taro eating population. Quality for poi production for Hawaii market will also be evaluated.1.4 Workshops will be held after trial evaluations, as acceptable varieties are chosen and planting material is sufficient for distribution. Taro tasting assessments, along with results of yield and TLB resistance will be shared. Propagation material will be distributed.1.5 Technical reports describing thenew varieties and and theircharacteristics will be produced and disseminated.1.6 The number of superior taro varieties released and adopted by farmers and consumers will be documented.