Doya ‘Yar Zaria: The secret, the values

The quality of Zaria yam attracts consumers and traders from different parts of the country and beyond. Zaria yam has been described by many as yummy and mouth-watering. Its quality has been attributed to the nature of Zaria soil.Attributes of Zaria soil, according to experts, contribute to the delicacy of yam produced in the area. […]

The quality of Zaria yam attracts consumers and traders from different parts of the country and beyond. Zaria yam has been described by many as yummy and mouth-watering. Its quality has been attributed to the nature of Zaria soil.
Attributes of Zaria soil, according to experts, contribute to the delicacy of yam produced in the area. According to Malam Danazumi Sani, a yam farmer at Kwanar Farakwai, cultivation of yam begins with good seedling. He said yam farmers in the area usually select and reserve their seedling after harvest.
“When we harvest our yam, we usually select our seedling immediately. The quality of your seedling would usually determine one’s harvest.
“After selecting our seedlings we reserve them in a special room. We usually put grasses on the floor of the room and we put our seedlings on top of the grasses and cover them with another set of grasses.
“This is how we preserve our seedlings. The seedlings can last for as long as a year provided the room is kept with adequate ventilation.
“Planting of yam usually begins with formation of ridges. In Zaria, we make our ridges high and wide. This is to allow the yam planted to have the space that would allow it germinate to become big tubes.”
He explained that formation of yam ridges usually starts at the beginning of raining season when the land had become soft, adding: “Different people have different ways of making their ridges. In this area, there are two ways of making ridges.
“The first method is to make the ridges like the normal ones, but it has to be a little bit wider. The second type is to construct the ridges like small pyramids that would spread across one’s farmland. Choice of ridges depends largely on one’s interest.
“Having concluded the ridges’ formation, the next thing is for the farmer to bring out his preserved seedlings for planting. Planting of yam, in most cases, begins during the months of March up to June. After the planting, a farmer would have to keep a watch at his farm, maintaining it through weeding and application of fertiliser.
“Another important factor in yam farming is how the farmer is able to dictate how his seedling germinates. An experienced farmer can determine whether the germination of his seedling is a perfect one or otherwise. A perfect germination can be known through the leaves. In this case, the leaves that seedling bear would be greenish all over while, on the contrary, the leaves would be a mixture of green and brown colour.
“New farmers need to contact their older colleagues for guidance. A farmer can leave his yam inside the ridges up to January before harvesting. In other words, after the raining season, a farmer can preserve his yam by not digging them out from their ridges. This is another way of preserving yam in this part of the country.”
On the issue of taste, Sani attributed that to nature, saying that Allah has blessed Zaria yam which described as unique.
“It is not our making that our yams are yummy. We don’t do anything special for our yams except what I have explained above. But I think two factors are very important to the taste of our yams, and these are absence of yam-prone diseases and the nature of our soil. The only yam disease that I know in this area is ants and insects. And these can easily be treated with spraying of your farmland with anti-insecticide.
“In my view, any crop that grows up with fewer problems of diseases is likely to be tasty and sweet. Disease is one factor that reduces the taste and quality of any crop. Another factor that I can add is the selection of our seedlings. We make sure we select the best seedlings because this yam farming is our means of livelihoods, and there is no way we would play with it.”
As Zaria yam continues to be the favourite of many consumers, farmers of the vine-tube-vegetable called for government assistance in order to mechanise their activities, and if that is done, according to them, yam from Zaria can be exported and companies for the making of yam flour can be established.