American Samoa to develop salt resistant Taro strains

Transcript

In American Samoa researchers are hoping to breed taro that can grow in salty environments, after finding an increase in salinity is causing crops to fail in traditionally grown areas.  

For the past three years the American Samoa Community College has been conducing a taro breeding programme.

They aren't sure if global warming is causing the high salinity, but it's occurring across the Pacific.  

Bridget Grace spoke with Horticulturist Ian Gurr.

IAN GURR: In American Samoa there are areas where taro is traditionally grown in wetlands where taro isn't growing well now, and recently we've been going out and testing the salinity of these areas and we're finding that they're high and so we're not exactly sure of the cause.  I dunno if it's storms, or sea level rising or something like that, I'm not sure exactly what.  But in areas where they used to produce taro, they're not able to produce it anymore, and I think in many low-lying islands they are finding the same thing, so identifying the varieties that can still grow in these areas is important.   

BRIDGET GRACE: How long do you think it would be before you find a variety that has good salt tolerance?

IG: I'm not really sure, there are other countries, Pacific island countries like Pohnpei and Palau and areas in Micronesia where they have already started doing this.  

BG: Would you say it's promising that it will be discovered in the future?

IG: Yes some of this Pacific Island countries have already identified some with salt tolerance so using those that have the genes that give them this tolerance as parent material in other breeding programs is a way to find the answers for us.  Because they might have good tolerance to salt, but they might not have the yield that we want or the eating quality that we want here, but they'll have the gene for the tolerance and so if we use those as our parent material with the other varieties that we have available that might have good qualities, eating qualities and a better yield, then we can probably come up with something that we would want to use here.  

BG: How much is it a concern, climate change and sea level rise with regard to taro growing?

IG: In low-lying islands in the Pacific it's a big concern.  Especially if, in the atolls where a lot of the taro is wetland taro so if you're growing taro in coastal low-lying areas.  So in the Pacific islands it's important work to try and find these salt tolerant varieties.