Ibadan: The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has encouraged farmers to harness the vast business opportunities in yam seed production.
A Yam Seed System Specialist, IITA, Abuja, Dr Beatrice Aighewi, stated this on Tuesday during a two-day capacity building workshop for Commercial Seed Entrepreneurs (CSEs).
The workshop was organised in Ibadan by IITA and its partners.
Aighewi urged farmers to view yam seed production as a lucrative venture distinct from traditional yam production.
“In the traditional method, nobody plants to get seed alone. Unfortunately, newly developed varieties of yam seeds that have better quality are not getting into the hands of farmers. So, we have come up with new methods that can rapidly produce yams.
“We want some farmers to specialise in seed production. By doing so, we’ll have more people who would have improved seeds of good quality available to farmers,” she said.
Mr Paschal Adikaibe, a Senior Analyst at Sahel Consulting Agriculture and Nutrition Limited, noted that the economic benefits of operating as a CSE could not be overemphasised.
According to Adikaibe, yam seed production has become a new niche in the value chain of yam production.
He noted that the development was due to an increase in the demand for yams within the last five years because of the astronomical population growth.
“The number of Nigerians we had five years ago is not the same now; this means there is a need for us to be able to solve our food needs.
“The new generation farmers are not just smallholder farmers anymore, they are graduates, who have been able to understand the need, and they are not producing for their stomach alone, but also for them to be able to solve one or two of their financial needs.
“They are now interested in looking out for the best seeds that will give them maximum yield from a limited area of land that they are cultivating.
“This creates an advantage for a commercial seed entrepreneur. The market is not saturated; we have over 80 per cent of Nigerians who are smallholder farmers, but how many per cent of these persons are commercial seed entrepreneurs?
“When it comes to economic benefits and yield, research has shown that the least that a commercial seed entrepreneur can get is about 70 per cent of Return on Investment,” he said.
