A STUDY ON THE CHALLENGES MILITATING YAM PRODUCTION IN EDO STATE

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: Yams (Dioscorea species of the family Dioscoreaceae) are a significant crop for food, money, and cultural customs. West and Central Africa is the leading producing and consumption region for yams in the globe (Ayeni, Adetunji, & Oyeniyi, 2021). Yam is vital to the nutritional, social, cultural, and economic well-being of the inhabitants of the yam belt in Africa. Nutritionally, yam is an essential food source for millions of people throughout the world. It is consumed in several forms, including fufu, boiling, fried, and roasted (Aidoo, 2009). In metropolitan areas of Ghana, yam accounts for around 13 percent of family food budgets (Aidoo, Ohene-Yankyera, Marfo and Blaise, 2009). Yam is crucial to the local economy of West Africa and contributes for around 32 percent of farm revenue (Chukwu and Ikwelle, 2000). The crop is an important source of foreign exchange profits and a raw ingredient for the starch and pharmaceutical sectors (Amanze, Agbo, Eke-Okoro and Njoku, 2011). As the world's biggest exporter of yam, yam exports contribute significantly to Ghana's foreign exchange profits (Ohene-Yankyera, Aidoo and Ohenewa-Tawiah, 2011).

The whole value chain of yam cultivation, processing, and commercialization provides significant job prospects for millions of people (Babtunde 2022). The supply of yam provides opportunities for revenue generating owing to the quantity of individuals engaged and the monetary worth of the product. The marketing system, which impacts both the prices earned by farmers and those paid by consumers, has a significant impact on food security (FAO, 2003).

Yams are members of the genus Dioscorea and the Dioscoreaceae family. Yams are dioecious plants that produce economically significant tubers and bulbils (aerial tubers) (Cabanillus, &d Martin, 2021). The stems are viny, the leaves are cordate or ovate, and the tubers are typically cylindrical and rich in carbohydrates, making them excellent for consumption (Mandal,2003). When leafy branches fall back and tubers go dormant, tuber formation is an evolutionary response to a dry season (Purseglove,2002). During the development of edible Dioscoreas, the thickening and lobbing of the ancient rhizome were replaced by a highly developed tuber structure (Burkill,2000). They are replenished and produced annually by the majority of species, although others are permanent. As a crop, yams are harvested annually and replanted using tuber fragments to renew the plant. Unlike other tropical root and tuber crop species, yams may be kept in ambient tropical conditions for four to six months without considerable loss of nutritional value. Additionally, tubers are frequently dried and then crushed into flour for reconstitution as a stiff paste (fufu), which is highly valued in West Africa (Cabanillus, &d Martin, 2021).

The Dioscoreaceae family has six genera, but Dioscorea is the most important. Twelve of the approximately 600 recognized species of Dioscorea are edible (Coursey,2006). Within this genus, the following species are edible and commercially valuable: Dioscorea rotundata (white yam or Guinea yam), Dioscorea alata (greater yam or water yam), Dioscorea esculenta (lesser yam or Asiatic yam), Dioscorea bulbifera (aerial yam or potato yam), and Dioscorea cayenensis (y (Ayeni, Adetunji, & Oyeniyi, 2021).

Some Dioscorea species, such as floribunda and composite, are valued for their high tuber content of steroidal saponins, which are utilized in the production of oral contraceptives, sex hormones, and cortisone (Purseglove,2002; Applezweig, 2007). The drug yams are primarily an uncultivated species (Coursey,2006). The English word "yam" is most likely originated from the Portuguese word ynhame, which was discovered in early records. ynhame was the transliteration of the Malinke word niam, which was extensively spoken in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast (Coursey, 2006).

 

The term "yam" has several meanings for the majority of people. It is a crop of edible root tubers that generates cash to support the farmer's family and himself. It has helped enhance living standards throughout the years (Ayeni, Adetunji, & Oyeniyi, 2021). According to the Oxford lexicon, yam is a starch-rich tuberous root that has essentially replaced potato as a staple meal in many tropical and subtropical nations. Yam is a member of the known botanical genes, although there are several species of enormous importance in West Africa.

The white yam (Discoreal rotonlata)

The water yam (Discoreal alata)

The yellow yam (discoreal caganesis)

Lesser yam (D. bulbfery)

Trifoliate or three leave yam (D. dumetorum)

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Falling yam productivity has fuelled calls for increased research activities in yam – a crop that serves as staple food to millions of people in Africa (Ayeni, Adetunji, & Oyeniyi, 2021). There are great differences in yield between individual countries (FAO, 2007), but for all countries, the average yield level is far below the potential one, which has been estimated (Gurnah,1974; Martin,1972) at 15-20 t for dry tubers ha-1 yr-1 (equivalent to 60-75 t ha-1 yr-1 on a fresh weight basis). One major constraint highlighted for its contribution to declining yam productivity is soil fertility degradation, due to nutrient depletion by leaching, and erosion, and the loss of organic matter from most soils in the savannah zone of Edo State. With increasing demographic pressure, land use intensity and reduced forest cover, suitable land for yam cultivation becomes gradually scarcer (Carsky et al., 2001). In Edo State, farmers practice slash-and-burn agriculture for yam production, which places great pressure on scarce virgin and fallow land resources. Natural fallow, crop rotation with grain legumes, and mineral fertilizer are the main soil fertility management strategies practiced here. However, most farmers do not use fertilizers and manures to any appreciable extent on yams (Ayeni, Adetunji, & Oyeniyi, 2021).

The edible yams are root crop groom on a field scale for the tubers. They provide staple carbohydrate food in the yam zone of west Africa, where daily consumption is 0.5, 1.0kg yam need a great deal of labour for their cultivation and to prepare them for food and they are usually expensive to buy for normal human consumption, the field or peal, sometimes after partial boiling in west Africa, they are usually eaten as pounded yam which is prepared by pealing cut up yam and boil before pounding them in a wooden mortal to produce a glutinous dough (pounded yam) (Ayeni, Adetunji, & Oyeniyi, 2021).

Therefore, this study sought to obtain more quantitative information on the problem of yam production and to derive growth parameters that could further be used for modeling of yam growth.

RESEARCH QUESTION  

1. Does lack of storage facilities affect yam production?

2. Do the uncertainties of market price affect yam production in Edo State?

3. Does lack of good road affect the production of yam in Edo State?

4. Is consumer taste a problem facing the farming or production of yam in Edo State?

5. Can the nature of the scarce of supply of yam tuber a problem of producing of yam?

6. Is nutritional value a problem facing the production of yam tuber?

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

Yam production in Edo State have hither to received security attention from research workers and students, the main reason for this is that people are ignorant at the importance of yam production in the state.

One of the present day challenges of yam production in Edo state has not been encouraging; the people regard the production of yam in the state as fit for only poor and the illiterate. Illiteracy is regarded as a passport to shirt and tie job in town.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Yam is a notable for its importance in human life.

To ensure it’s confined existence with better performance

To ensure the awareness of people to the need for development of a positive attitude towards the production of yam in Oredo Local Government of Edo State.

To improve the quantity and quality of yam production in our local government area of Edo State.

To make people understand better effective and efficient modern methods of producing yam in the state.

To find out why yam is not cultivated in lorry scale by the farmer in Edo State.

To identify the different condition favourable for yam production in Edo State.

The existence of yam is threatened by cassava production if care is not taking the survival of yam doubtfully.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This product works is centered on the production of yam in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State.

The problems associated with yam production in Edo State and ways of finding solution to the problem encountered by the farmers.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

This research of work or project should be centered on definition on the problems and prospect of yam production in Edo State. However, due to the complex nature of the villages in Edo State, some selected villages in the state are Edogbo Oregbani and Asoro.