Description

Yam {Dioscorea spp.} is an important food crop especially in the yam zone of West Africa. Although more than six hundred species of the tuber exist, only a few are important as staple food in the tropics. These include white yam (D. rotundata), yellow yam (D. Cayenensis), water yam (D. alata), trifoliate yam (D. dumetorum), aerial yam (D. bulbifera) and Chinese yam (D. esculenta).

West Africa accounts for 90-95% of world yam production with Nigeria the largest single producer. In 2004, global yam production was about 47 million metric tons (MT) with 96% of this coming from Africa.

Nigeria alone accounts for about 70 percent of world production .It is the second most important root/tuber crop in Africa with production reaching just under one third the level of cassava.

Yam is produced in all the states of the federation though the product is produced more in Benue, Oyo and Nassarawa.

Some of the other yam producing states in Nigeria includes Sokoto, Abia, Anambra, Delta, Edo, Enugu, Ebonyi, Niger, Taraba, Osun and Plateau.

Mature yams are harvested at the end of the rainy season or early part of the dry season, which coincides with the end of vegetative growth. Yams for long-term storage (for marketing or seed) are usually harvested during the harmattan period (Dec-Jan) in many parts of southeastern Nigeria when the crops have attained maximum growth and maturity.

According to statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, an estimated 48.7 million tonnes of yam were produced worldwide in 2005, with sub-Saharan Africa accounting for 97 per cent of this figure.

In Nigeria alone, export earnings from yams hit N56bn in 2008, up from N37bn realised in 2007 and about N70bn was realized from yam export last year. In 2008 the World production of yam was 51.4 million tonnes per year out of which Nigeria accounts for an average of 36.7 million tonnes, Ghana for 3.6 million tonnes and Cote d’Ivoire for 4.8 million tonnes. The figures underpinned the socio-economic importance of yams.

Nigeria has comparative advantage in the production and export of yam. The nations presently controls about 70-76 % of the world’s production.

The investor should take advantage of the global yam market which is growing at about 3% annually and increasing the market share of Nigerian yam which is mostly exported to Japan by exporting quality yam to Europe and America.