Influential yam producer visits YIIFSWA-II for mass propagation of seed yam
September 4, 2020
YIIFSWA-II Project Leader Norbert Maroya showing the feeding system and the established roots and tubers of yam plants in the aeroponic system.
YIIFSWA-II Project Leader Norbert Maroya showing the feeding system and the established roots and tubers of yam plants in the aeroponic system.
The Chief Executive Officer of Napetsa Farms, Joseph Adewale Fosudo, has been growing yam for decades in Epe, Lagos, and in northern Nigeria. The yam producer, considered a top commercial farmer, visited CGIAR-IITA on 4 August to learn about using single-vine seedlings from high ratio propagation technologies (HRPTs) for seed yam tuber production. “I came because I am particularly interested in using vine seedlings derived from technologies like the aeroponics system (AS) for seed yam tuber production. I supply yam to well-known food outlets in Nigeria and major processors who export frozen yam chips and cubes to the west for consumption by Africans in diaspora. Demand for yam is growing, but the availability of inputs like seed yam is not keeping up with demand. But IITA, like in the past—for many other situations—has a solution. That is why I am here,” Fosudo said. YIIFSWA-II Project Leader Norbert Maroya received him and took him around the campus to showcase HRPTs. They visited the aeroponics and the hydroponics systems (HS), and the single-node vine cuttings nursery to see how yam seedlings are produced using the novel technologies. Fosudo saw how vines cut from the aeroponics system are propagated in a nursery screen house before being transplanted to the field. On the field, he saw AS-derived vine seedlings growing under rain-fed conditions thriving in dense populations (up to 100,000 plants/ha).
trailing practices of YIIFSWA-II.
Contributed by
Related news
No items found