American Samoa’s loss of all traditional taro varieties in the 1990s due to taro leaf blight disease has necessitated the need for taro crop improvement.  Taro, the staple food crop of American Samoa, is subjected to changing climate, soil, pest and disease conditions. Production and evaluation of new taro varieties is important to identify varieties with acceptable eating quality and tolerances to heat, salinity, pests and diseases.

 The American Samoa Community College Agriculture, Community and Natural Resources Division conducted a taro tasting of one of its newly developed taro varieties. Horticulture and Agriculture Extension staff harvested and prepared the taro for the taste test.The cooked corm flesh is yellow, dense and moist. The eating quality was found to be excellent, with eighty-seven percent of tasters preferring the new ACNR variety over the most common variety American Samoan farmers are currently growing. The average corm weight of the ACNR variety was found to be 2 lbs. compared to the 2.7 lbs. average corm weight of the current farmer’s favorite (in this planting). ASCC-ACNR recognizes Mr. Tolo Iosefa, who conducted the early taro breeding work in Samoa, following the taro leaf blight epidemic in the Samoan islands and who early on, graciously conducted a taro breeding workshop for ASCC-ACNR and ASDOA staff. ACNR also recognizes the Samoan Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the University of the South Pacific, the Pacific Community Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees gene bank in Fiji, and other taro breeding programs and nations whose taro varieties were made available to be used as parent material for the breeding program.

ASCC-ACNR will continue to multiply and evaluate this and other developed taro varieties before releasing planting material to local farmers and the community in an effort to improve food security in American Samoa. For more information, contact Dr. Ian Gurr at 699-1575 or i.gurr@amsamoa.edu