Yam production: Stakeholders seek FG’s support on PPP initiative

Stakeholders on yam production have called upon the Federal Government to support the setting up of public-private initiative to facilitate an emerging tissue culture based yam seed in the country.
This was contained in Communiqué arising from a Yam Seed Production workshop held at the University of Ibadan, and made available to newsmen in the Oyo State capital on Wednesday.
The three-page Communiqué was signed by Prof. Gbemisola Oke, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics), University of Ibadan and the workshop facilitator, Dr Morufat Balogun, Geneticist in the Department of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology.
The workshop focused on using Temporary Immersion Bioreactors (YAM TIBs), noted that there was limited yam seeds from TIBs in the country.
The stakeholders also identified scarcity of planting materials as the major constraint to yam production in Nigeria.
“In order to allay fear or reservations towards acceptability of tissue culture produced seed yam among other farmers or general populace, there should be advocacy for acceptability of the technology through different media,” it said.