YIIFSWA trains commercial seed producers for increase yam yield

The Yam Improvement For Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA)’ in collaboration with the National Root Crop Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike, Abia State, has trained 18 technicians from 11 commercial seed companies on the operationalisation of the Aeroponics system (AS) and Temporary Immersion Bioreactor System (TIBS), for high quality pre-basic and basic seed yam production at NRCRI.

The two-day training workshop was also aimed at promoting the operationalisation of the High Ratio Propagation Technologies (HRPT).

The beneficiaries were drawn from Premier Seeds Nigeria Limited; Da-Allgreen Seeds Limited; Bumfash Nigeria Ltd; Romarey Ventures Nigeria Limited; Samlak Industries Limited; Sylva Ejezie Farm Limited; Mamora Seeds Limited; Biocrops Biotechnology Nigeria Limited; National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC); Maslaha Seeds Nigeria Zamfara; and Nwabudu Agro Seeds, among others.

YIIFSWA project Leader, Dr Norbert Maroya said the project was initiated in September 2011 with more than $12million US grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation  (BMGF) to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to increase yam yield and output by 40 per cent for 200,000 Small-holder Farmers in Nigeria and Ghana.

According to Maroya; “The three fold purpose of the workshop/training were to develop the technical capacity of some private seed companies in Nigeria on day to day management and running of the aeroponics system for basic seed yam production, raise awareness on the existence of the AS at NRCRI and showcase the feasibility of high ratio propagation of basic seed yam also at the institute.

He added that the expectation after the workshop was that private seed companies would be encouraged to invest in the establishment of their own Aeroponics systems for high quality basic seed yam that would lead to the formation of partnerships between the private seed companies and the Institute for sustainable high quality seed yam production.

In this regard, he said YIIFSWA has assisted farmers engaged in yam cultivation for household food supply, income generation through marketing ware, yams and production of Seed Yam Tubers (SYT) to meet their own needs with some income from the sale of surplus seed yams.

One way this project is being implemented is through Aeroponics system, a process of growing plants in the air or mist environment without the use of soil or aggregate medium known as geoponics, a system that has been assessed to be capable of generating an annual gross income of about N16m in Nigeria.

It was gathered that one aeroponics system, which consists of about 10 boxes, can generate approximately 40,000 vines for planting in a cycle of three months and thereafter transplanted to an irrigated field for the production of the seed tubers. From the 40,000 vines, about 160,000 tubers of seed yams can be produced all year round and going by the given market price of seed yam presently at one N100, yam aeroponics can generate a gross income of about N16, 000,000 annually.

Also addressing the participants, the Executive Director of NRCRI, Dr Julius Okonkwo, who stated that before the YIIFSWA Project, yam production was declining and needed modern system /technology to revive it, attributed the decline, which he put at about 60 per cent to Virus attacks and soil infertility, saying; “Yam research took a low profile status relative to other staple crops like cassava and maize, but that with YIIFSWA now, research on yam has come to the fore as evidenced by quality of technical outputs and capacity building transformations so far recorded under the project.”

He urged the participants to engage in the training activities and learn as much as they can for the furtherance of the formal yam seed system, adding that as part of the federal government strategic plan to make more food available to Nigerians, arrangements were being concluded to increase the production of yam, which is one of the country’s staple foods.

High point of the workshop was inspection of the NRCRI Aeroponics facility that was established last year, exposure of the participants to practical training on hardening of pre-basic yam plantlets from the TIBS, cutting of vines in aeroponic system for transplanting into the system and in nursery bags and the transplanting of pre-rooted vines in the field for seed