This document provides information about Colocasia esculenta (taro). It begins with an introduction that describes taro's scientific name, chromosome number, origin in India and Southern Asia, and importance as a staple crop. It then lists several species of Colocasia and their geographic distributions. The document discusses taro as a widely distributed crop in tropical and subtropical regions. It also notes the genetic diversity of taro found in Northeast India. Details are provided about the morphology and reproduction of taro plants. The document discusses research on taro breeding objectives, challenges, and methods. It also summarizes findings from several research studies on taro. Production information is given on taro varieties, soil and climate needs,

2. Introduction
SC: Colocasia esculentus
Family: Araceae Ch. No. : 2n=28
diploid (2n = 28) or triploid (2n = 42)
(Ramachandran, 1978) and the basic
chromosome number is x= 14 (Matthews,
1990)
Origin: India to Southern Asia
It is most important and one of the oldest
crops.

4. species of Colocasia
Colocasia affinis Schott - Yunnan, Nepal, Assam, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, eastern
Himalayas.
Colocasia antiquorum, sometimes considered a synonym of C. esculenta.
Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott - taro, elephant-ear, eddoe - native to southern China
Colocasia fallax Schott - Tibet, Yunnan, Himalayas, northern Indochina
Colocasia fontanesii Schott - Yunnan, eastern Himalayas, northern Indochina
Colocasia gigantea (Blume) Hook.f. – giant taro - southern China, Indochina, Malaysia, western
Indonesia
Colocasia hassanii H.Ara -Bangladesh
Colocasia lihengiae C.L.Long & K.M.Liu - Arunachal Pradesh, Yunnan
Colocasia mannii Hook.f. - Assam, Nicobar Islands
Colocasia menglaensis J.T.Yin, H.Li & Z.F.Xu - Yunnan, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam
Colocasia oresbia A.Hay - Bangladesh, Sabah
Colocasia tonoimo A.Hay - Unknown

5. This widely distributed crop is a staple food important in many
localities in the humid tropics and subtropics.
Taro extends to the temperate zones of East Asia, southern
Africa, Australia and New Zealand (Jianchu et al.,2001).
Northeast India is rich in genetic diversity colocasia.
This region is rich in colocasia diversity for both cultivated and
wild species particularly in jhum fields, homestead gardens,
near water bodies, river banks, forests and road sides.

6. Research study

7. Colocasia boyceana
Colocasia dibangensis
A. Habit of the plant.
B. Abaxial side of the leaf
purple lining in the sinus.
C. Corm of the plant
D. Habit of the plant.
E. Abaxial side of the leaf
showing pink veins.
F & G. Corm of the plant.

8. Inflorescence 1, peduncle green, cylindric,
shorter than petiole, 34- 43.5 long, 0.6-0.8
cm across, spathe constricted between
tube and limb; tube green, oblong, 3.2-5.5
long, 1.8-2cm wide, subcylindric; limb
erect, yellow on both surfaces, lanceolate,
13-16.5 cm long, apex acuminate.
Spadix shorter than spathe, to 7 cm long;
female zone whitish green, cylindric, c. 2 ×
0.8 cm, with inter-pistillar staminodes;
Ovary ovate or obovoid, c. 2 mm long, 1.5
mm wide, green, stigma inconspicuously 3-
lobed, sessile, disciform, translucent white,
staminodes yellow, ovate, erect, c. 2 mm
long and 1.5 mm wide; sterile zone
yellowish white, 2.5 × 0.5 cm, cylindric;
male zone c. 2.5 × 0.8 cm, synandria c. 6-
androus, polygonal, creamy, with white
hairs; appendix absent.

9. Inflorescence 1-3 together; peduncle light
pinkish, cylindric, to 17 cm, slender. Spathe
constricted between tube and limb; tube
reddish pink, to 5 cm long, 2.5 cm wide,
oblong; limb reddish black externally, light
yellow internally, subcylindric, to 13 cm
long, to 2.5 cm wide, oblanceolate, margins
entire, erect or slightly curved apically, apex
acuminate, never relaxed on anthesis.
Spadix sessile, to 17 cm long, shorter than
spathe; female zone reduced, green and
yellow, cylindric, to 2.3-2.5 × 1.4 cm, green
fertile flowers mixed with light yellow
staminodes, synandrodes broadly oblong to
depressed ovate or depressed obpyramidal,
apex subtruncate; ovary green, subglobose
or ovoid, 1.5-2 mm diam., 1-loculed,
parietal, placentae 3, ovules many; stigma
sessile.

10. Inflorescences up to 5, peduncle green
with purple reticulation, cylindric,
shorter than petiole, 40-45 cm long, 0.7-
0.8 cm across, spathe constricted
between tube and limb; tube green,
elliptic, subcylindric, 5.5-6.5 cm long, 1.6-
2 cm wide; limb erect, golden yellow
both dorsally and ventrally, ovate, 14-16
cm long, apex acuminate.
Spadix sessile, shorter than spathe, to
8.5 cm long; female zone green, cylindric,
2.5-2.8 cm × 1-1.3 cm, 1/3 of the spadix,
with inter-pistillar staminodes, yellow;
ovary oblong, 2-2.5 × 2 mm, green, 1-
loculed, placentae 2, stigma sessile, 3-
lobed, disciform, white, staminodes
yellow; sterile zone yellow, 2.5-3 cm ×
0.8-1 cm, cylindric; male zone yellow,
3.8-4 cm × 0.7-0.8 cm, synandria 3-10-
androus, polygonal, creamy, without
hairs; appendix absent.

11. • the existence of wild species of Colocasia that are shared between the western
and eastern regions of Himalaya, in India and China.
• At the same time, it expands our understanding of a possibly unique assemblage
of diverse Colocasia species growing wild in NE India, composed of C. esculenta, C.
boyceana, C. affinis, C. dibangensis, C. fallax, C. fontanesii, C. manii and C.
lihengiae. In S China, the overall assemblage of Colocasia species also appears to
be unique with C. affinis, C. bicolor, C. esculenta, C. fallax, C. fontanesii, C.
gaoligongensis, C. gigantea, C. gongii, C. heterochroma, C. menglaensis, C.
tibetensis and C. yunnanensis.
• The existence of diverse assemblages of Colocasia species in different regions of
Himalaya indicates that the genus has a long and complex history in the Himalayan
region.
• The recent discoveries of two new Colocasia species raises a posibility of the
further existence of undescribed species in the wild, and at the same time the
existence of more Chinese species in the region of Indian Himalaya.

12. BOTANY
The plants are herbaceous perennials and cultivated
mostly as annuals.
This monocotyledonous, succulent plant grows up to a
height of 30 cm to more than 2 m.
The leaves are large, entire, ovate to sagittate and
attached with on long petioles which are erect (Strauss,
1983).
It produces shallow fibrous and adventitious roots.
The plant produces stolon or suckers.
The lateral buds present in the corms arise in the form
of cormels, stolons and suckers.

13. The inflorescence arises at leaf axils in cluster of
2 – 5 and it consists of spathe, spadix, staminate
flowers, pistillate flowers, neutral flowers and
sterile appendage (Pardales, 1980).
The staminate and pistillate flowers are small,
sessile and monoecious.
The stigma becomes receptive one day before
the anther dehiscence and remains receptive a
day after anther dehiscence.
The pistillate flowers are covered by spathe.

14. Self-incompatibility, natural
constriction by spathe,
different flower maturity
times prevent self-pollination
thus enables the cross
pollination (Pardales, 1980).
The flowers are fragrant and
pollination is carried out by
insects (Ivanicic, 2011).

15. Research study

16. The insects most commonly found in inflorescences of the four Colocasia species
studied were flies of the drosophilid genus Colocasiomyia (Fig. 1D). Usually ten to
30 individuals (60 in one inflorescence of C. fontanesii) were found per
inflorescence.

17. The flies arrived at the onset of anthesis, landed on the outside of the
spathe blade and soon walked down into the lower floral chamber.
The females oviposited mainly between the pistillate flowers (Fig. 1G).
Male and female flies were frequently observed mating inside the
inflorescence

18. The corm, the
underground stem is
starchy, compact and
thick. It is composed of
outer brown colour scars
and scales and ground
starchy parenchyma
(Plucknett, 1976).

19. Based on the corm morphology,
the plant is botanically classified
into two groups namely
dasheen (Colocasia esculenta
var. esculenta) and eddoe
(Colocasia esculenta var.
antiquorum).
The dasheen type is
characterized by large mother
corm with very few small
cormels and the eddoe type is
characterized by small to
medium size inedible mother
corm with equal size of
numerous edible cormels
(Purseglove, 1972).

20. Nutrient content in Colocasia
Anbalagan et al., 2022

23. Breeding Objective
The main
objective of the
taro breeding
program is to
develop through
sexual
hybridization high-
yielding,
Disease- and pest-
tolerant cultivars
with good corm
quality
characteristics
acceptable to the
farmers and
consumers.

24. Taro Breeding
Classical breeding:
• The important targets of taro breeding might be
genetic variability, corm yield, wider adaptability and
resistant to disease and insect pests.
• Taro is vegetative propagated crop and rarely flowers
and the flowers are protogynous, which makes the use
of classical breeding methods difficult.
• Developing variety by classical breeding is challenging
because of its nature of flowering habit and breeding
work depends on selection methods.
• Molecular breeding

25. Research Study

26. Hybridization and Seed Germination of Taro

29. Research Study

30. Table 1. Maximum number of alleles at loci, genetic diversity parameters and index of clonal diversity within the
357 cultivars of Colocasia esculenta obtained by genotyping with 11 nuclear microsatellite loci.
Chaïr H, Traore RE, Duval MF, Rivallan R, Mukherjee A, et al. (2016) Genetic Diversification and Dispersal of Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.)
Schott). PLOS ONE 11(6): e0157712. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157712
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0157712

31. Fig 3. Map showing the geographical distribution of the cultivars (i) after Bayesian clustering assignment (black,
grey and white pie chart in each linked pair of charts), (ii) of the ploidy levels inferred from the number of alleles
per microsatellite locus, (iii) and of the multi-locus lineages (MLLs) in cultivated taro (coloured pie chart in each
linked pair of charts).
Chaïr H, Traore RE, Duval MF, Rivallan R, Mukherjee A, et al. (2016) Genetic Diversification and Dispersal of Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.)
Schott). PLOS ONE 11(6): e0157712. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157712
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0157712

32. VARIETIES

42. East India: White gauriya,
Kakakachu, NDC 1, NDC 2, NDC 3,
Kadma, Nadia Local, Jhankri and
white Gauriya.
West India: Satamukhi and
Saharshamukhi
South India: Sree Rashmi, Sree
Pallavi and C16.

43. PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY

44. Soil and Climate
It grows best in
sandy loam or
alluvial soil
with abundant
organic matter
and moisture
holding
capacity.
A soil pH of
5.5-6.5 is ideal.
It is a crop of
tropical and
sub-tropical
regions and
requires a
warm humid
climate.
Under rainfed
conditions, it
requires a fairly
well
distributed
rainfall around
120-150 cm
during the
growth period.

45. Seed Rate & Sowing Time
Side tubers each of 25-
35 g are used for
planting.
About 37,000 side
tubers weighing about
1200 kg are required
to plant one hectare.
Rainfed crop:
May-June to October-November
Irrigated crop:
Throughout the year

46. Propagation
• Colocasia is propagated
vegetatively mostly by
small cormels weighing 20-
25 gm.
• Healthy, disease and injury
free and of uniform sized
planting material should be
selected and stored in a
cool place at least for 3
months before planting.
• 1 t/ha of planting material
is needed.

47. Dig up your parent plant in the fall for the
highest chance of success
Soak your tools with bleach to avoid
transferring diseases
Remove the parent plant from its pot or
in-ground location

48. Select healthy tubers with roots to divide
from the parent plant
Separate the new tubers from the parent
plant
Plant the tubers indoors if you want to
grow them immediately
Replanting the Tubers

49. Space the elephant ears 3–6 ft (0.91–1.83 m)
apart
Keep the soil around your plants consistently
moist

50. Planting
• The side corms are planted at
a spacing of 45 cm on the
ridges.
• Soon after planting, the
ridges are covered with
suitable mulching materials.

51. RESEARCH STUDY

53. Spacing played a
significant role in
determining the
overall performance
of taro.
Wider spacing
increased the corm
yield of individual taro
plants whereas
narrow spacing
increased the total
corm yield of taro per
unit area.
Based on the results
from this study,
planting at the closer
spacing 1 m × 0.5 m
which produced the
highest corm yield
ha−1 in all accessions
is recommended to
farmers.
Accession BL/SM/80
which also produced
high corm yield ha−1
is also recommended
to farmers in the area.

54. RESEARCH STUDY

56. Nutrient Management
Compost @ 12 t/ha is applied as basal dressing, while preparing
the ridges for planting.
A fertilizer dose of 80:25: 100 kg of N: P: K /ha is recommended.
Full dose of P and 1/2 of N and K should be applied within a week
after sprouting and the remaining 1/2 of N and K one month after
the first application along with weeding and earthing up.

57. RESEARCH STUDY

59. Water Management
For uniform sprouting, irrigation should be given just after
planting and one week later.
Subsequent irrigation may be given at 12-15 days intervals,
depending on the soil type.
The irrigation should be stopped 3-4 weeks before harvest.
In the case of rainfed crop, if there is prolonged drought,
supplementary irrigation is required.

60. Intercultural Operations
Inter-cultivation is essential in colocasia.
Weeding, light hoeing and earthing up are
required at 30-45 days and 60-75 days after
planting.
The leafy parts may be smothered about one
month before harvest so as to enhance tuber
development.

61. Plant Protection Measures
Colocasia Blight:
It can be controlled by
spraying Ziram, Zineb,
Mancozeb or Copper
oxychloride
formulations at 2 g/l of
water (1 kg/ha).
Aphids:
For controlling serious
infestation of aphids,
apply Dimethoate or
Monocrotophos at
0.05%.

62. Research Study

63. • The three treatments (T) were
• Callomil Plus 72WP (T1) (1kg of
Callomil Plus contains 120g of
Metalaxyl + 600g of copper
oxide),
• Mancoxyl Plus 720 WP (T2)
(80g/kg of Metalaxyl +640g/kg of
Mancozeb), and1:1volume ratio
of
• Callomil + Mancoxyl (T3)

65. RESEARCH STUDY

66. The result test using Salkowski colorimetric technique show that the darkest pink
isolate was ETR33.
According to Kovacs [Kovacs, 2009], the darker the pink color is the higher the IAA
produced by the fungi.
Level of IAA concentration will be determined by highly stability and density colour of
sample after have been added salkowski reagent [Gordon & Weber, 1951]

67. Harvesting and Yield
Colocasia becomes ready for harvest 5-
6 months after planting.
The mother corms and side tubers are
separated after harvest.
A yield of about 5- 6 t/ha can be obtained
from a good crop.

68. Post Harvest

69. Research Study

70. Bread production from plain taro flour and with different mixtures: After the entire
formulation process, different types of bread were obtained, with 100% taro flour and
others whose proportion of mixture with wheat flour was 50 and 30%,

71. The sensorial analysis showed a good consumer acceptability of the formulated types of
bread, and, as observed, the three types presented averages higher than 4 scores in all the
attributes.
Exception goes to the softness attribute in the formulation of 100% taro, in which the
average obtained was 3.93, what means a positive acceptance of the products.
Taro has revealed to be an excellent raw material for obtaining flour and making bread of good
quality which is acceptable to consumers.
Mixing at different levels of inclusion with wheat flour can be a viable alternative in bread
making

72. Research Study

73. • Table 1 shows the pH values recorded
for a period of 7 days.
• The table reveals that the pH of the
broth decreased daily until the
fermentation was completed.
• As it decreased, the fermenting broth
became more acidic for optimum
yeast activities.
• Table 2 shows that the total soluble
solids (brix level) of the broth
decreased with an increase in the
period of fermentation until a constant
value was obtained.
• That is, the brix level dropped as the
yeast utilized the sugars and reduced
its quantity in the medium.

74. • The specific gravity of the broth decreased with an increase in alcoholic content of
the fermenting broth (Table 3).
• The table reveals that as the period of fermentation increased, the specific gravity of
the broth decreased while the level of alcohol produced increased.
• The development of an efficient method for ethanol production using cocoyam as a cheap source of
raw material.
• Although cocoyam is one of the stable root crop in Nigeria, however over 20 million tonnes are lost
yearly due to inadequate storage facilities (IITA, 2009).
• Since cocoyam is perishable after harvesting, speedy conversion of the surplus harvest will reduce
wastage and improve economic gains.
• The use of cocoyam in the production should be encouraged because of its high ethanol yield.
• In addition, cocoyam can be successfully cultivated in poor soils with low capital and labour
requirement.

75. Extraction of Colocasia esculenta Starch
Mohanty et al., 2021

76. • Wild taro tubers (Colocasia esculenta) used in this study.
• Prior to use, the cleaned tubers were soaked in NaCl (1% w/v) at a ratio of
2:1. 500 g of tubers for each experiment was steamed then dried inside
the oven at 60°C for 24 hours.
• The tubers were blended and sieved to produce taro flour
Praputri and Sundari, 2018

77. RESEARCH STUDY

78. It was observed that 933 rpm speed was the
most suitable speed for the operation of this
machine, as it had higher peeling efficiency of
68% with a throughput capacity of 112.92
kg/hr.

79. THANK YOU

80. REFERENCES
• Jianchu X, Yongping Y, Yingdong P, Ayad WG,
Eyzaguirre PB. Genetic diversity in taro
(Colocasia esculenta Schott, Araceae) in China:
An ethnobotanical and genetic approach. Econ
Bot. 2001;55(1):14–31.