Lolita N. Ragus obtained her PhD (Agronomy-Plant Breeding and Genetics) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA.  She co-authored references in agriculture called Philippines Recommends in rice, corn, sorghum, winged bean, peanut, mungbean, soybean and ginger.  She was employed as Researcher at the Northern Marianas College (1988-1995) and Palau Community College (1995-1999). Presently as Agronomist Researcher at the COM-FSM Chuuk Campus, she conducts US department of sgriculture research and extension programs in food security and climate change.

Giant swamp taro (Cyrtosperma chamissonis or C. merkusii Schott) is an important crop at atolls and mountainous islands in Micronesia. In the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) with four states (Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei and Yap), the population is threatened with food insecurity.  Foremost is abandoning their taro patches damaged by recurrent wave surges and salt-water intrusion. 
To ensure security of this food source, 43 cultivars from Pohnpei and 30 cultivars from Chuuk were collected and grown in a swamp with an average salinity of 1,300 ppm (0.13 %) to identify salt-tolerant varieties.  For two years, these seedlings were monitored for plant height, number of petioles and leaves, monthly corm diameter increment, leaf damages, leaf width and length, seedling survival and sucker number. The 43 cultivars were grouped into 15 clusters based on their morphological characterization. These clusters were soaked under high water salinity level using ocean water averaging 53,000 ppm (5.3.%) for seven hours to determine their responses to salinity including losses in biomass, corm masses, root number and length. Two cultivars were identified with more than 2-cm monthly diameter growth and more than 80% survival rates under natural swamp condition. From the 7-hour soaking experiment, few cultivars were identified with minimal root damages. This study recommended root number before and after soaking in highly saline water as a practical indicator in identifying a salt-tolerant giant swamp taro cultivar.