Kaduna coy produces yam seeds from tissue culture

Aseed production company based in Kaduna has begun the production of yam seeds through product obtained from tissue culture lab. This will give yam farmers in the country more access to improved quality seeds.  The vice chairman and chief executive officer of Da-Allgreen Seeds, Engineer Yakubu Steve-Atar, disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Daily […]

Aseed production company based in Kaduna has begun the production of yam seeds through product obtained from tissue culture lab.

This will give yam farmers in the country more access to improved quality seeds. 

The vice chairman and chief executive officer of Da-Allgreen Seeds, Engineer Yakubu Steve-Atar, disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Daily Trust last week in Abuja.

“Right now, we have invested over N20 million to set up a very big screen house and aeroponics basically to promote the programme of biotech under seed yam,” he said.

Screen houses are efficient physical barricades for reducing pests from destroying crops that may cause severe economic damage and loss to farmers.

On the other hand, aeroponics facilities are used for growing plants in the air without the use of soil.

Experts say “Aeroponics is a great alternative for growing plants in small spaces, especially indoors. In aeroponics, no growing medium is used. Instead, the roots of plants are suspended or hung in a dark chamber and periodically sprayed with nutrient-rich solution.”

Engr Steve-Atser said they have started production taking product from tissue cultured lab, adding that people can visit their company and see the process for themselves.

He stressed that the company was working with other stakeholders to begin the process of properly classifying yams in the country toward solving the confusion created using different names to refer to the same type of yam.

According to him, his company has upgraded its facilities for expanded production to serve millions of farmers in the country.

Nigeria is the largest producer of yam with about 36 million metric tonnes annually.

But the farmers face challenges of scarcity of high quality seed which is put at 9.1 million tonnes for 2018 alone.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is using aeroponic propagation technology to tackle the growing demand for high-quality and improved varieties of seed yam in Nigeria through the Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa II (YIIFSWA-II) project.