About Us

The International Network for Edible Aroids (INEA) is a global consortium of scientists and growers, formed to facilitate work on Colocasia and Xanthosoma under a project entitled: Adapting Clonally Propagated Crops to Climatic and Commercial Change.

The aim of this 5-year project, which is assisted with a grant of €3 million from the European Union, is to use edible aroids as a model to improve clonally propagated crops of the tropics, which are difficult to adapt to new conditions as they rarely flower and set seed. Not only that, but in any one region, crop diversity is low, insufficient to produce plants adapted to climate change, pests and diseases, market needs, etc. In order to overcome the constraints, INEA will help countries bring together plants with varied genetic backgrounds, assist with breeding strategies, and demonstrate the use of modern biotechnologies to facilitate the work. In the process, it will develop a network of scientists and farmers exchanging information and germplasm under the auspices of international treaties.