Conserving and Sharing Taro Genetic Resources for the Benefit of Global Taro Cultivation: A Core Contribution of the Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees

Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) is an important staple food crop in many countries in the humid tropics and subtropics. This article reviews the origin, domestication, and dispersal of taro, its genetic diversity and ex situ germplasm collections, and the role of the Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees (CePaCT). CePaCT is known as the global center for taro genetic resources and mandated to introduce, conserve, and share new taro genetic diversity with farmers, plant breeders, and other scientists.