A University of Ibadan (UI) don says certified seed yam will improve yam production and strengthen Nigeria’s position in the global yam market.

Morufat Balogun, Principal Investigator, Youth4Climate Initiative, UI, made this statement at the opening of a capacity development workshop on Seed Yam Production and Entrepreneurship (SEYEP), held via Zoom on Monday.

The three-day workshop was organised under the Youth4Climate Initiative and domiciled in the Department of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology, UI.

Ms Balogun said using quality planting materials was critical to addressing low propagation rates, disease risks, and poor field establishment associated with conventional yam production.

“Conventional yam propagation has a low multiplication ratio, with farmers often cutting one tuber into about five or six portions to obtain new plants.

“Technological innovations involving tissue culture, hydroponics and leaf-bud cuttings now provide opportunities for rapid multiplication of clean and quality planting materials,” Ms Balogun said.

She said that the research by the initiative and its partners showed that certified seed recorded 96 per cent field establishment, compared with 34 per cent for farmer-saved seed.

Ms Balogun said certified seed also required smaller planting materials, typically between 30 and 100 grammes, compared with 200 to 1,200 grammes, often used by farmers with farmer-saved seed.

The don said the development was particularly important because seed constituted about 50 per cent of production costs for smallholder yam farmers.

Ms Balogun said Nigeria remained the world’s leading producer of yam, accounting for nearly 70 per cent of global production, but had yet to fully exploit the crop’s export potential.

She attributed some challenges in yam export to quality concerns, including the rejection of consignments affected by rotting and contamination.

“What you plant is what you harvest,” she said, stressing the importance of quality seed in improving production and maintaining standards for export.

Ms Balogun said the initiative was developing a seed yam value chain involving research institutions, private seed companies, seed entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers.

According to her, the programme is also creating opportunities for youths, women and rural farming families to participate in the emerging certified seed yam enterprise.

Earlier, Oluseun Olubode, chief of the Environmental Biology Unit, CPEB, UI, said the initiative was leveraging emerging technologies, including tissue culture and hydroponics, to improve seed yam production.

Mr Olubode said the project succeeded in its first cycle, with participants gaining knowledge and expertise that could improve their economic prospects.

Olajide Aogo, chief executive officer of Matrix Fertiliser Limited, who represented Hamid Shayk, Director-General of AbdulKabir Ali Foundation, said the foundation supported the initiative because of its commitment to food security.

Mr Aogo urged participants to apply what they learned during the training, saying “the success of the programme will depend on its application beyond the workshop.”

The Chairman of the Youth4Climate Monitoring and Evaluation Team, Kabir Salman, said participants would be monitored after the training to determine how effectively they applied the knowledge and skills acquired.

He said youths participating in the programme would receive initial planting materials and support towards membership of an accredited CPEB farmers’ cooperative to facilitate production and marketing.

The workshop focuses on certified seed yam production, entrepreneurship, theoretical sessions and practical demonstrations. 

(NAN)