Collecting taro and other tuber crops from North Eastern Hill region of India

A germplasm collection mission to North Eastern hill region of India was undertaken to collect taro and other tuber crops during 1996. The area showed wide distribution of taro. This supports the theory that this region is the Centre of Origin of taro. In all, 42 accessions of taro and 50 accessions of other tuber crops were assembled from Garo hills, Khasi hills and Jawai hills of Meghalaya. The collection contains high yielding varieties, acid free cultivars and leaf blight free types. The collected germplasm will be very useful in the breeding programme.