Yams remain one of the most important staple crops in Nigeria and across West Africa, supporting food security, livelihoods, local markets, processing, and trade. As demand continues to grow among farmers, consumers, markets, industries, and export markets, ensuring a consistent supply of yams year-round requires a reliable seed system that provides farmers with enough high-quality planting materials when needed.
To address it, a stakeholder interaction on “Early generation seed yam demand estimation and production planning” brought together key actors from National Root Crop Research Institute (NRCRI), National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) and IITA, on 28 August to discuss findings from the field seed requirement survey and explore approaches to strengthen production planning. The meeting provided an opportunity to examine how improved seed yam technologies and more coordinated seed systems can help increase the availability of quality planting materials, enabling farmers to scale production and respond to growing demand for yams for food, markets, local industries, and export.
The meeting also provided an opportunity to demonstrate planning tools that can support early-generation seed producers in working toward target seed volumes and better align seed production with demand.
In his opening address, James Legg, IITA Seed System Lead, explained that the Inclusive Delivery area of work is part of the Breeding for Tomorrow (B4T) Science Program, which develops climate-resilient, nutritious, and market-preferred products for smallholder farmers. As one of the program’s five areas of work, Inclusive Delivery supports the strengthening of seed systems and their capacity to deliver high-quality seed by working with national partners.
He explained that the goal is to establish a network of seed producers capable of running profitable, sustainable businesses while meeting the needs of farmers who depend on high-quality seed of improved, registered varieties for lasting, and transformative impact, particularly for high-value crops such as yams.
IITA Breeding Lead, Hapson Mushoriwa, in his remarks, expressed appreciation to the participants and stakeholders for their contributions and continued commitment to strengthening yam seed systems. He emphasized that while significant progress has been made in developing improved yam varieties, the success of breeding efforts ultimately depends on farmers having timely access to sufficient quantities of quality planting materials.
The meeting therefore provided an opportunity to strengthen the link between breeding, seed demand, production, and variety deployment. Collaboration among breeders, seed producers, national programs, regulators, the private sector, development partners, and farmers remain essential to building a responsive seed system that can meet the needs of the yam value chain.
“From the breeding perspective, IITA is committed to ensuring that breeding decisions increasingly align with seed production realities, farmers’ demand, market needs, and the capacity of partners to deliver,” he added. “The goal should be to move from reactive seed production to a coordinated, demand-driven, and forward-looking seed system.”
Asrat Amale, Head of Yam Breeding, highlighted efforts to promote released varieties by showcasing their production potential and food quality to farmers. He explained that farmers are also being linked with seed producers and processors to better connect market demand with production capacity and seed availability. Some varieties have been prioritized based on their seed production productivity and nutritional value. He noted that two new varieties have been released since the beginning of the year.
Prof. Morufat explained that under Inclusive Delivery, efforts also focus on addressing the gap between the supply of high-quality seed and demand from the e-market segment. She noted that the team, together with partners, had populated the Seed Requirement Estimation (SRE) tool to support seed yam production planning and deployment in target areas of Nigeria and Ghana. She emphasized the importance of using the tool collaboratively with partners to improve planning and ensure seed production responds to actual demand.
Pelemo Olugboyega, who works with IITA’s Yam Improvement Program, explained that the meeting was also aimed at assessing the volume of seed currently available, identifying the varieties across different seed classes, and determining how the scale and number of varieties available could be increased.
He noted that strengthening the seed system requires ensuring that farmers have access to certified seed and that certified seed producers have access to sufficient foundation seed. Foundation seed growers have adequate breeder seeds. This coordinated flow across the different seed classes, he explained, is essential for scaling improved varieties and ultimately meeting farmers’ needs, local market and industry demand, and the country’s export requirements.
Contributed by
Tolulope Akinola