 Hi, I'm Lea, a researcher and curator at the National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory. Taro, or Gabi in Filipino, is a highly diverse root crop in our country. It is widely distributed and it has about 160 traditional varieties. But this diversity is not conserved in farmers' fields. Farmers can actually help by establishing community gene banks so that this diversity can be conserved in their fields. It is fortunate that we have about 160 diverse collection of taro in our gene bank. We can share this and distribute to farmers so that farmers can select varieties that are adapted to diverse environmental conditions. I call on the Department of Agriculture and other agencies to help support farmers in the conservation of these varieties of taro.