Divisi
How to grow Cocoyam / Taro
Colocasia esculenta · Araceae
Photo: Susan Slater · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cocoyam, or taro (Colocasia esculenta), is a broad-leaved plant grown for its corm — a heavy, potato-like food store that swells underground — and, in some types, for its tender young leaves. You do not grow it from seed. Instead you plant a living piece of another taro plant: a small corm, a cormel (a little side-corm), a headsett (the leafy top of a corm) or a sucker (a side-shoot). Taro is one of the very few food crops that will grow standing in shallow water, like rice, as well as on well-drained moist ground — so your first and biggest decision is wet ground or dry ground. It is a patient crop: the corm takes many months (often 7–15) to fill, feeding heavily the whole time, above all on potassium. One warning — raw corms and leaves carry tiny needle-like crystals (calcium oxalate) that itch and burn the mouth and throat, so they must always be well cooked or dried before eating.
Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0 
JLPC · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Days to maturity
- 180–540 days
- Row spacing
- 70 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 70 cm
- Sowing depth
- 5–10 cm
These are general figures for the crop, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. The right choice for your field depends on your soil, rainfall and the yield you are aiming for.
Will cocoyam / taro actually do well on your land? Check your field against every crop in the catalogue — free, no signup. Run the free crop check →
Other names for Cocoyam / Taro
taro · cocoyam · dasheen · eddoe · ede · amadumbe · madhumbe · majimbi · jimbi · koko
Working in buckets, bags or paces? The farming glossary turns the measures growers actually use into kilograms and hectares — what a 20 litre bucket of each crop really weighs, and how to size a field by walking it — alongside the Shona, Swahili, Ndebele and Yoruba words used in the field. Open the glossary →
Growing cocoyam / taro, stage by stage
Your taro season from first to last — choose wet or dry ground, plant clean setts bud-up, keep the crop steadily moist and fed with potassium through the long months the corm swells underground, then lift and cure corms that store and eat well.
- Get ready — choose wet or dry ground, and clean setts
- Plant the setts and get a full stand
- Grow the canopy — earth up, weed and guard the leaves
- Fill the corm — the make-or-break months
- Dig the corms at the right time
- Cure, store and use the corms safely
15 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for cocoyam / taro — what to do, when to do it and why it matters — with the amounts worked out for your own field, reminders as each one falls due, and warnings before extreme weather.
Pests and diseases that attack cocoyam / taro
1 more threat tracked in the app
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your cocoyam / taro right now, when to walk the field looking for it, and what to do the moment you find it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does cocoyam / taro take to grow?
Cocoyam / Taro takes about 180–540 days from sowing to maturity, though the exact length varies with variety, temperature and how the season runs.
What spacing should I use for cocoyam / taro?
Space cocoyam / taro rows about 70 cm apart, with roughly 70 cm between plants within the row.
How deep should cocoyam / taro be planted?
Sow cocoyam / taro at about 5–10 cm deep. Shallower risks drying out; deeper wastes seed energy before the shoot reaches light.
What pests and diseases attack cocoyam / taro?
The ones covered in this guide are Corm rot, Dasheen mosaic virus, Taro beetle. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
Grow cocoyam / taro with a plan, not a guess
Divisi turns this guide into a dated plan for your own field — what to do each week, reminders as tasks fall due, and warnings before extreme weather. Free for farmers, works offline.
Or check your field first