IITA Trains Investors to Boost Yam Production in Nigeria

Gilbert Ekugbe

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture’s (IITA) Capacity Development Office (CDO) and Yam Improvement Programme (YIP) have empowered yam investors with the requisite skills and techniques to boost yam production in Nigeria.

At a two-day training to expose participants to seed value-chain analysis and the various seed categories that could be produced under license from the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC), the training focused on seed and seed production techniques that are critical to commercial-scale yam production, especially as focus is now shifting to utilisation of yam beyond domestic consumption.

The move, according to IITA, is apt considering the fact that yam is a staple crop in Nigeria, with the country being the largest producer of yams in the world, accounting for over 70-76 per cent of global yam production

According to reports, annual yam production in Nigeria is about 50 million tonnes, which is valued at $13.6 billion.

A highlight of the training covered requirements for tuber export, seed health and technologies, and storage systems as facilitators also emphasised the need to leverage on the qualities of the newly released D.alata cultivars from IITA as a composite to enhance the flour industry in Nigeria.

An IITA Yam breeder, Pelemo Olugboyega, said that the focus on the newly released water yam could unlock the industrial use of yam, saying that this would have positive implications for smallholder farmers and the beverage, food, and pharmaceutical industries.

“There have been recent calls to the flour industry to explore other sources of flour to reduce dependence on wheat supply, which has been affected by the Ukraine-Russia war. The training served as an avenue for key stakeholders to have conversations around exploring yam flour as an alternative to wheat in Nigeria,” Olugboyega said