Yam farmers lament government negligence

Farmers are lamenting that yam farming is not receiving attention as cassava, rice and other crops, in terms of intervention and inputs. The Edo State chairman of the Yam Farmers Association, Luke Osagie, who spoke exclusively with Daily Trust on Sunday, also explained the best yam farming methods. He said that despite the many challenges […]

Farmers are lamenting that yam farming is not receiving attention as cassava, rice and other crops, in terms of intervention and inputs.

The Edo State chairman of the Yam Farmers Association, Luke Osagie, who spoke exclusively with Daily Trust on Sunday, also explained the best yam farming methods.

He said that despite the many challenges faced by yam farmers, they are still making progress in terms of yield and profit.

He said one of the challenges, especially in Edo State, for instance,  was the activities of herdsmen, “Who at times graze our farms with their cattle and chase  farmers away.

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“We normally stay in the farm after planting. There is hardly any bush in  Edo that you don’t have herdsmen. By the time you tell them not to destroy your farm, they will fight you. And to avoid being killed, most farmers run away from their farms.

“Secondly, government is not taking yam farming seriously the way they do to other crops like cassava and rice, in terms of intervention and inputs.

“Also, people are not really interested in yam farming because of the work in it. They ignore it because they don’t know its economic value.

“Yam farming is a very lucrative business. We have the land for cultivation; even Benue State doesn’t have the land we have in Edo and they are feeding Nigeria with yam. We can do same here. We also have a market here for it.

“Yam seed is very costly. A seed for planting is now N300, and when you buy close to 2,000 seeds to plant in an acre, you know what that means. Unfortunately, people are not looking at the direction of yam.”

He, however, said that despite the challenges in yam farming, it is a lucrative business that people should venture in.

How best to farm yam

Luke Osagie, the leader of Edo yam farmers, said it was easy for a new farmer to go into yam farming and be successful.

“As a new farmer, he or she has to acquire the land and prepare it for cultivation. After that, you either do ridges or the normal digging.

“You have to first get the yam seeds for planting. This is very important because there are seeds that are good in padding while others are good in just eating; it depends on the one you want to go for.

“But I would not advise the person to go for red yam because you can’t harvest it the same year you plant it. It is always harvested at the close of the year. Ordinarily, yam farming is not supposed to exceed six months.

He said the planting period was usually between April and May while the harvest period would be between September and October.

He also said that during harvest, farmers could get the seeds and bury on the ground so that they could plant it the next season.

“But when time doesn’t permit, you can uproot; and that will increase the farmers’ yield.

“During planting you can give one feet and half to make the yam do well, but the water yam and red yam don’t need deep hole. Red yam doesn’t go deep on the ground, it goes sideways most of the time, but white yam goes deep into the ground.

“To get better yield, farmers can apply fertiliser. But I have not really applied fertiliser in my farm because our land is fertile and if you use fertiliser on a fertile land it would put holes on the yam. Most times you space the planting, which can make it do very well,’’ he added.

According to him, the species of yam matter in planting as there are some that you can get two yams in one hole while another can only produce one.

He said farmers in the state had never received inputs or intervention from either the state or federal government because they have neglected yam farming.

“Our government is not looking in that area; and Benue State is making much money from yam farming,” he said.

He said that despite the setback, yam farmers are planning to have a market in the state and also form cooperatives for the benefit of farmers.

On loan, he said, “We have not been getting loans from commercial banks because of huge collateral, while micro finance banks that are close to the people don’t even look our way.

“People always believe that yam is a yearly crop because we always harvest towards the end of the year, but it is six-month crop because planting is April/May.”

He appealed to the state government to look in the direction of yam farming by giving them inputs, the same way they do to rice, cassava and other crops receiving government’s attention.

“If they give us good variety of seeds, it would be better. And yam has market more that cassava because it can be stored for long period,” he added.

He called on yam farmers to come together by forming cooperatives because government can’t attend to individual farmers, saying, “It is only when we come together that we can achieve much.

“Government should also make yam a priority crop because it will encourage more people to go into farming,” he also said.