By Eunice Orike cc
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture(IITA) Abuja research station, has recently declared an open day to promote the yam leaf -bud cuttings and minituber technologies for seed production.
The new yam technologies were developed under the Program for Seed System Innovation of the Vegetatively Propagated Crops (PROSSIVA), which uses various innovations to produce quality seed yams rapidly.
PROSSIVA also encouraged seed entrepreneurs to adopt technological and marketing advanced for profitable certified seeds yam businesses.
Agronomist and seed system specialist at IITA,Abuja station Beatrice Aighewi, disclosed to journalists that yam is a major cash crop that people cannot shy away from.
“IITA has been doing a lot of work to see how they can boost yam production in the country’,” she said.
According to her , yam production can be increased even within a limited area, and that seed quality is a major factor that is reducing the potential of yam.
However, she disclosed that the IITA was able to do a lot of research and able to come up with new technologies that has made yam to be multiplying at the same rate as maize and corn, or even more in weight.
She said with these new technologies, farmers could realise up to 30 to 50 metric tonnes per hectare, as against the 10 tonnes they were realising from their field.
She noted that some seed companies received training, but now they were looking at how to decentralise production,since most of the companies were closer to the urban areas, while yam was actually produced in the rural areas.
“So, if we can have this community seed production networks that can go everywhere, we can really get the seed yams to the farmers.
” That is why we are bringing people together at IITA stations, so that they can even be aware of these technologies and then take it back with them,” Aighewi said.
The Seed Yam Specialist said farmers should adopt the yam leaf-bud cuttings and minituber technologies for seed production.
She said farmers clearly saw the differences in yields between IITA clean, virus free, certified seeds that were planted along with farmers recycled seeds in field demonstrations.
“We planted ten farmer- recycled yam seeds and only five came out, but from the certified seeds, the clean seeds, all came out and then you could also see from the sizes that were produced,” she said.
In her response to what government can do to assist, Aighewi said government should revive the extension services.
According to her, “a lot of these information cannot be carried by IITA to the farmers, but if we have extension services, and we take this type of information to the government, then it will go down through the extension services to the farmers.”
She said another way she saw more impact was to get the private sector involved in seed production.
Research associate and an Agronomist, Aihebhoria Daniel, with the PROSSIVA project, who, alongside Aighewi, conducted farmers round the demonstration plots, also urged farmers to adopt the PROSSIVA technology.
“We are encouraging them to adopt it and able to produce yam and become what we call the Certified Seed Yam Entrepreneurs.
He explained that in the leaf-bud cutting technology, they use the yam vine they cut having a leaf , either one or two on it, then plant it.
“That is able to plant a lot of yam seeds, and and within a very small space.
“For example, 240 seeds can be generated just using about 2.4 metre square,that is a very small space.
” If you use that and go for a hectare, you will end up getting up to 2.4 million at about 10 by 10 spacing.
“Traditionally, yam is produced at 6,000 mounds or six plants per hectare, so you can imagine the level of disparity,” he said.
He said the minitubers could also be planted up to 150,000 or 200,000 per hectare, adding that by so doing, they get so much.
