Logotonu Meleisea Waqainabete: Guardian of Crop Diversity in the Pacific Islands
12 February 2026, Fiji: The latest in our Seed Heroes series celebrates genebank manager Logotonu Meleisea Waqainabete for her work protecting crop diversity and supporting food security at the Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees (CePaCT) in Fiji.
In Samoan mythology, people first learned to cook food after the hero Ti’i-Ti’i brought fire to humans by defeating Mafuie, the god of earthquakes and fire. For Samoans like Logotonu Meleisea Waqainabete, these myths reflect a deeper truth – natural disasters and food security have always been closely linked.
Pacific Island countries have always faced cyclones, earthquakes, and tsunamis. These disasters have killed people, destroyed homes and wiped out crops. In 1993, Samoa faced a different sort of threat when taro leaf blight struck. Within just six months, this fungal disease nearly destroyed the country’s taro crop, putting food supplies, exports and indeed the entire national economy at risk.
Working at CePaCT in Suva, Fiji, Logotonu understands how this history of disasters led to the creation of a regional backup for the diversity of key crops. CePaCT now safeguards collections of taro, yam, sweetpotato, banana, cassava and breadfruit, among others.
“Taro is our main staple in Samoa,” she says. “When the taro plantations were wiped out in 1993, we knew we had to do something so it wouldn’t happen again.”
February’s Seed Hero oversees a collection of crops that cannot be stored as seeds, like happens in most other genebanks. Instead, they are conserved as living plantlets in glass test tubes and jars kept under artificial light in clean, sterile conditions. This is known as in vitro conservation, vitrum being Latin for glass.
Plant Protector
Logotonu Meleisea Waqainabete, known to all as Logo (pronounced Longo), is one of the Pacific region’s most committed protectors of crop diversity. She knows every variety stored in the CePaCT genebank. Over the years, she has cared for thousands of small tubes holding plant samples from across the Pacific. Her work helps ensure these crops are available to breeders and farmers around the world. With support from the Crop Trust, CePaCT has strengthened how it shares plant material with farmers and breeders across the Pacific and beyond, helping communities adapt their crops to climate and other challenges.
“In Pacific countries, there is a big emphasis on fish – and fast food,” she says. “I try to remind people how valuable crops and agriculture are for a healthy diet.”
Today, the Samoan-born scientist leads the Genetic Resources program in the Land Resources Division of the Pacific Community, which hosts the CePaCT genebank. Her goal is to help Pacific Island countries conserve their crop diversity and access it when they need it.
“No matter how busy we are, just going to the genebank reminds me why we are there,” she says. “I always try to picture what will happen if we lose a variety. It motivates me.”
CePaCT is supported by the 27 Pacific Community member countries and territories. It was established in 1998 and now holds nearly 3,000 varieties of different crops. This includes the world’s largest collection of taro diversity. CePaCT receives a long-term grant from the Crop Trust every year to support the costs of part of its essential operations.
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