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Prop up the yam !
I return from a brief visit to Nigeria. A few days were spent in Osogbo and two days in Ibadan, where I had an opportunity to go and see the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA. The visit was too short but most interesting. The Institute is doing research on a great number of highly concrete subjects, which ought to be widely publicised, in particular as regards yam cultivation.
  Yam (igname in French, ñame in Spanish and dioscorea in the scientific world) is widespread in tropical regions with over 1500 mm rainfall, as in the south of Burkina Faso and in Nigeria, which is the top producer with over 2/3 of the 40 million ton world output. Yam is a herbaceous plant with a twining stalk, grown for its tubercular roots, which mostly weigh between 6.6 and 11 pound, but may attain up to 33 pound for some varieties.
Good conservation techniques can achieve year round production and farmers therefore have a chance to increase profits, as they can sell when prices are at their peak.
While touring the immense premises of the Institute, of international range , I was struck by a beautiful field of yam plants. What impressed me in particular was the fact that each stalk was attached to a support. Our guide explained that thanks to these props, production may be increased from 20 ton /hectare (2 ½ acres) to 40 ton/hectare. I even read later on that it is possible to get a 50 % increase. This is still of great interest ! It w ould probably require a higher input of organic fertiliser, 15 to 20 ton of very mature (decomposed) dung /hectare is recommended. In traditional cultivation with no addition of fertiliser, production is held to be “low”, i.e. 12 to 15 ton /hectare. In Memento de l’Agronome (Ed. La Documentation Français e) a reference reads: The yield is in the order of 20 T/hectare, but can easily be doubled under good cultivation conditions.
  The use of support props is certainly a given part of such good practices. But its effect varies between species and is higher on the early season varieties.
At Ibadan the research staff organises a large number of in house training courses for farmers and may also set up courses for external groups, as in Burkina. The request must however come either from the Government or from a public research institute. The southern town of Léo in Burkina should look at the possibility to hold such a training seminar in connection with the celebration of the yam harvest.
Koudougou October 22nd 2009
Maurice Oudet
Director, SEDELAN
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