TARO AND NATIONAL FOOD SELF-SUFFICIENCY

 Grounding taro and efforts to be self-sufficient in food by talas jogja

Taro compared to several others tubers commodities, such as cassava, sweet potato, gembili and others, can be used as an alternative food other than rice which is healty and save especially for people with diabetes mellitus and for people who are on a diet program. The low carbohydrate content of 22.25% compared to rice, which is 67.89% makes taro has a good level of security compared to rice (Iskandar, 2018; Sudomo & Hani, 2014 inside Nurliani, Dwiratna et al, 2019).

The premium taro product by talas jogja offered is the Pratama type of taro. This taro originated from Biotechnology Research Center of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in Cibinong, Bogor. The research was carried out for approximately 13 years, in 2016 by the inventor, which finally the hogh-yielding taro variety was inagurated under the name The Pratama taro varietas. Pratama comes from abbreviation of the names of the three researchers who have selected the taro. 

As one of the local food ingredients, taro plants (Colocasia esculenta (L). Schott) can be used to support national food self-sufficiency, in addition to rice and corn. Thailand, Brazil and Hawaii, the United States have made taro as a basic ingredient to meet food needs. Reflecting of this, Indonesia as an agricultural country is certainty challenged to make taro as an alternative food ingredient to replace rice, which is healtier.