As part of efforts to boost seed yam production in the country, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in conjunction with Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) have trained fifty yam farmers on modern seed yam multiplicity and storage technology in Edo State.
The farmers drawn from the three senatorial districts in the state were trained on how to multiply seed yam with the aid of aeroponics technology.
Addressing the farmers at a one-day training programme in Benin City at the weekend, Iyere-Usiahon Perpetual, head , root and tubers division, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Abuja, said the training was geared towards exposing the farmers to new technologies in producing seed yam and develop a better understanding of existing methods.
Perpetual, who is also the focal person, advocacy and resource mobilization of YIIFSWA project, disclosed that the training would also expose farmers to different products from yam for income generation through its value chain.
Also listed as objectives includes: exposing youths and women to opportunities in yam value chain, encouraging government to assist yam sector/investors, and provision of a budget line for yam in the state as it is being done at the federal level, among others.
She said the YIIFSWA, which is a $12million, five-year project, seeks to develop and establish a functional, commercial seed yam system in Nigeria and Ghana to benefit smallholder farmers through timely and affordable access to high quality seed yam tubers and improved varieties.
She explained that the target of the project was to provide 1000 minisets of targeted varieties to national programmes responsible for the production of pre-basic seed in Nigeria and Ghana for use as “nuclear” stock for the production of pre-basic seed and other seed classes.
On his part, Malachy Akoroda, YIIFSWA advocacy consultant, said Aeroponics technology was geared towards the production of improved varieties of seed yams that are affordable, sustainable and boost the income of farmers as well as enhance food security.
Akoroda, a professor of Agronomy in plant breeding and seed production at the University of Ibadan, said the establishment of the Aeroponics plant would boost quality seed yam production in the state as well as in the South-South region and parts of South- East, South-West and North-Central.
The professor, who noted that the establishment of the Aeroponics plant was about N25million, called on the Edo State government to facilitate its establishment in the state through Public-Private Partnership (PPP).
In his remarks, Wellington Omoragbon, Edo State director, federal ministry of agriculture and rural development, said the training programme would afford farmers in the state an opportunity to explore the yam value chain and create wealth from yam farming as a business.
Omoragbon said the programme was in line with the policy of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for agriculture.
He said the policy was to work with key stakeholders to build an agribusiness economy capable of delivering sustained prosperity by meeting domestic food security goals, generating exports and supporting sustainable income and growth.
IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, BENIN
