Vanuatu farmers revive ancient taro cultivation to combat climate change threats

Deep in the tangled forests of Vanuatu’s Espiritu Santo Island, Richard Rojo navigates familiar paths with the confidence of someone who has called this land home for four decades. Armed with a bush knife and rice sack, the subsistence farmer leads visitors through dense vegetation to a hidden clearing where an ancient agricultural practice is experiencing a modern revival.

The destination reveals itself as a carefully engineered rectangular pool, roughly the size of a basketball court, enclosed by earthen berms and filled with neat rows of chest-high plants sporting distinctive heart-shaped leaves. This is water taro (Colocasia esculenta), an ancestral crop that Pacific Island communities are increasingly turning to as climate change intensifies threats to traditional agriculture.

As rising sea levels bring saltwater intrusion and extreme weather events become more frequent, Vanuatu’s coastal villages are rediscovering the resilience of crops their ancestors cultivated for centuries. Water taro thrives in flooded conditions that would destroy other staple foods, making it a natural buffer against climate impacts. The plant’s ability to grow in waterlogged soils also provides communities with food security when traditional gardens fail due to drought or storm damage.

Organizations like the Sunset Santo Environmental Network are documenting these grassroots adaptation strategies, recognizing that indigenous agricultural knowledge may hold crucial solutions for climate resilience. For farmers like Rojo, tending these ancestral crops isn’t just about preserving tradition—it’s about ensuring survival in an increasingly unpredictable climate.