School Science Lessons
Yam Project
2012-05-02 SP
Please send comments to: J.Elfick@uq.edu.au
Preface
Before teaching this project, discuss the content of the lessons with a
field officer of the Ministry of Agriculture and get advice on planting material,
planting distances, site for planting, approved mulch, composting, and control
of pests and diseases. Use only the procedures, agricultural chemicals and
insecticides recommended by the local field officer of the Ministry of Agriculture.
If you cannot control insects by hand-picking, ask the Ministry of Agriculture
to recommend a chemical spray. All insect sprays are dangerous. Show the
students how to use them safely. Do not get the spray onto your hands. Do
not breathe in the spray. Wash your hands well after using spray. Keep the
spray container in a safe place where students cannot get it. Spray on a
day of no wind but if you must spray when there is a wind, spray down wind.
Make sure the spray does not blow on other people
Table of contents
1.0 Introduction to the yam project
2.0 Different kinds of yams
3.0 Leaves of yams
4.0 Stems
5.0 Tubers
6.0 Bulbils and flowers
7.0 Planting
8.0 Keeping records
9.0 Staking
10.0 Weeding
11.0 Fertilizers
12.0 Fungus diseases
13.0 Pests of yams
14.0 Climate for growing yams
15.0 Varieties of yams
16.0 Harvesting yams
17.0 Storage of yams
18.0 Global Initiative underway to preserve yam biodiversity
History
1.0 Introduction to the yam project
See 9.14.0:
Composting
1. Yams are important in the lives of some of the people for yam festivals
at harvest time and food. Teach this project if yams are an important crop
locally. Teach with real plants or parts of plants. Students should do the
actual work of growing the yams. Plant yams at the end of the dry season and
before the tubers begin to make long sprouts, i.e. plant early varieties in
August and late varieties before the end of September. You could start the
teaching in early June before planting time.
2. Yams are very important in all parts of Melanesia, Papua New Guinea, the
Solomon Islands, New Hebrides and New Caledonia. They are grown mostly by
the coastal people, not by people living inland. Yams are also important in
the high islands of Micronesia, in Ponape, Kusaie, Truk and Yap. They cannot
be grown on the coral atolls. Yams are less important in most parts of Polynesia,
but some are grown in Tonga, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Samoa and
also in Fiji. Yams are called by different names in different islands. One
of the commonest names in the Solomon Islands and Fiji is uvi. In some islands
a man is important if he can grow the biggest yams. Many people think that
magic words must be used when planting yams. In some islands the people put
special stones near the planting place because they believe magic stones
will help the yams to grow.
2.0 Different kinds of yams
See diagram 63.2: Winged Yam
The yam family (Dioscoreaceae), monocotyledon, are twining plants. The stem
is not strong so it needs to have something strong that it can twist around
to climb up. There are many different kinds (species) of yams and each kind
of yam has many varieties.
1. Dioscorea alata (D. rubella) "common yam", Greater yam,
Water yam, Winged yam, White yam, Guyana arrowroot, Ten-months yam, Name-de-Agua
It is the most common yam. It
is a large climber with winged stems produce large single tuber. The stem
is square and has four thin pieces of stem or "wings" at each corner. Climbs
from left to right, i.e. the stem always twines to the right, as in the diagram.
Each variety winged yam has only one tuber to each plant but the shape of
these tubers varies in different varieties.
2. Dioscorea bulbifera, Potato
yam, Aerial yam, Bulbil-bearing yam, Air-potato, bulbil yam, wild yam
It is a climber with round stems
bearing edible aerial tubers called bulbils in the leaf axils. The stem twists
to the left, and the plant makes many tubers up in the stem above the ground.
It may also make some tubers under the ground.
3. Dioscorea esculenta, the lesser
yam, pan is a small climber producing more than 1 small tuber. The lesser
yam has a round spiny stem which always twists to the left, i.e. climbs from
right to left. The tubers are small and rounded with groups of them to each
plant. The leaves are alternate.
4. Other yams include:
Dioscorea batatas, Chinese yam,
Cinnamon vine, Shan-yao
Dioscorea cayenensis, Yellow Guinea
yam, Yellow yam, Twelve-months yam, Lagos yam
Dioscorea composita, (D. tepinapensis)
Barbasco
Dioscorea dumetorum, (Helmia dumetorum) Bitter yam, Cluster
yam, Trifoliate yam
Dioscorea elephantipes, elephant's
foot, Hottentot bread
Dioscorea floribunda
Dioscorea numularia, Has very spiny
stem and climbs from left to right.
Dioscorea pentophylla, Has a leaf
with 3-5 lobes, spiny stem and climbs from right to left.
Dioscorea praehensilis, Bush yam,
Forest yam
Dioscorea preussii
Dioscorea rotundata, White yam,
White guinea yam, Guinea yam, Eboe yam
Dioscorea trifida, Cush-cush yam,
Aja, Yampi, Mapuey, Cush-cush, Yampee
3.0 Leaves of yams
See diagram 63.3: Leaves of yams
The leaves of yams vary in the shape of the leaf, the length of the leaf
stalk, the thickness of the leaf stalk, the leaves are in pairs opposite one
another, or are alternate (first one side then another), the thickness of
the leaves. Use leaves of 2 or 3 different shapes to name the parts of the
leaf and label leaf stalk, veins and lamina. Trace the shape of two different
leaves, the small veins and the parts of the leaves.
4.0 Stems
See diagram 63.4: Twining yams
Use pieces of stem from the winged yam and the lesser yam. Look at the stem
of a winged yam and draw it. Draw a stem that twines to he right and one
that twines to the left. Look at how leaves are arranged on the stem. Draw
the twining of the stems in two kinds of yams. Look at the arrangement of
leaves on the stems and draw one leaf attached to the stem. Cut across the
stem of a winged yam and draw the shape of the stem. Stems of yams twine
to the right or to the left. The stem of the winged yam has four thin wings
at the corners of the stem. Stems may have leaves in opposite pairs or leaves
alternate on the stem.
5.0 Tubers
See diagram 63.5: Yam tubers
Teach this lesson in the dry season after the yams have been dug. Use yam
tubers of different shapes. Note the shape of the whole tuber, the colour
of the flesh, the colour just under the skin, the appearance of the outside
skin. Bring different shapes of tubers into the classroom. Draw some tuber
shapes. The tubers of yams are of different shapes. The colour of the flesh
and the taste of the flesh may be different. The colour of the flesh just
under the skin may vary in different varieties. Each yam plant may make one
large tuber, but some varieties make several smaller tubers.
6.0 Bulbils and flowers
See diagram 63.4: Yam bulbils
1. Bulbils and flowers may be seen on the stem. Some kinds of yams form
small swollen bulbils like small tubers formed above ground in the axils,
i.e. the angle between the leaf stalk and the stem. Bulbils can be eaten
like tubers. Bulbils are the main ways of storing food for Dioscorea bulbifera. Bulbils can sometimes
make shoots and roots if a stem cutting is taken with the bulbil. Bulbils
usually form when the plant has been growing for a long time and is near
the end of its growth for that year. Bulbils can be used as planting material.
2. Yams do not usually make flowers. The male and female flowers are formed
on different plants, i.e. yams are dioecious. Flowers of yams are very small
and usually do not make seeds but they may make small seed cases called capsules
containing small seeds.
7.0 Planting
See diagram 63.7: Planting yams
1. After the yams have made tubers, the plants lose some of their leaves.
Then the tubers have a resting time usually in the dry part of the year that
lasts for 3 to 4 months. Then the tubers will start to make sprouts. Plant
the tubers before sprouting because the sprouts may be broken off the tuber
during planting. Early varieties of yams are usually planted in August. The
late varieties are usually planted before the end of September.
2. The planting material may be any of the following:
2.1 Whole tubers. If the tubers are small, they are not cut, but planted
whole.
2.2 Cut pieces of tuber. The tubers may be cut into three pieces, heads,
middles and tails.
2.3 The heads are the pieces that grow into the best plants. There are many
buds in this part of the tuber.
2.4 After the tubers have been cut into pieces, it is best to leave them
for a week so that the cut part can heal and get hard.
3. To stop the cut pieces of tuber from rotting put fungicide on to the
cut surface.
4. To prepare the yam garden, dig a long trench and put some compost into
it. Then cover the compost with topsoil and heap it up to make a mound. Plant
the yams in this mound. Make the mounds about 1 metre apart and plant the
yams about 45 cm apart along the ridge with the tops is 5 cm below the surface.
Cover the place where the yam was planted with dead grass to keep the soil
moist around the yam piece.
1. What time of the year are yams planted? It
is important to plant before sprouting.
2. Different kinds of planting material, whole tubers, heads, middles and
tails.
3. Leave the cut pieces for a week then put Captan on the pieces. The village
people use wood ash.
4. Make a garden.
5. Planting and capping.
6. Cut some yams into pieces.
1. Yams are planted at the end of the dry season,
3 or 4 months after harvesting.
2. Planting material may be whole small tubers, or heads, middles and tails
cut from large tubers.
3. Tubers are left for a week before planting.
4. Make a garden. The size depends on the amount of planting material.
5. Dig trenches and put compost in them.
6. Heap up soil to make ridges.
7. Plant the yam pieces.
8. Put a capping of dead grass over the planting places.
8.0 Keeping records
See diagram 63.8.1: Yam growth | See diagram 63.8.2: Yam diary
Keep good records of the growth of the yams. Make a table to include the
date the yams were planted, the date when the shoots first came, how high
the plant was each week, how many centimetres the plant grows each day.
Choose one planted yam and make notes on its growth. Put a stake in the
ground for the yam to grow up. Every day for one week make a mark on the
stake showing how high the yam has grown. In the diagram see the growth of
one yam.
1. You will learn more about yams if you keep careful records.
2. Make a table for keeping records.
3. Make the first entry of the date yams were planted.
Use growth records to calculate the average daily growth of the yam shoot.
The yam in the diagram grew nearly 8 cm a day in wet weather but only about
4 cm a day when the weather was dry. In some countries yams grow very much
faster than this.
9.0 Staking
See diagram 63.9: Staking Yams
Yams have weak stems. They cannot stand up by themselves. Yams need to have
something to climb up so that they can reach the sunlight. When the leaves
of yams are in full sunlight they make more food and the tubers grow bigger.
There are many ways of making supports for yams:
1. Sometimes people push long pieces of branches into the soil near the
planting piece. These are called stakes. The trouble with this kind of support
is that it can be blown over by the wind.
2. Sometimes people put pieces of dead bushes on the soil over the planting
place. Then the yams can grow over these bushes to a height of 30 to 60 cm.
The trouble with this kind of support is that it is not high enough, and
the yam leaves may not get enough sun.
3. A better way of staking yams is to make "A frames". These are posts or
pieces of bamboo or other stems pushed into the soil so they lean towards
each other. They are tied together at the top, and other long pieces are tied
across the tops of the A frames to keep them still in the wind. Look at the
picture.
4. If a man wants to grow many yams so he will have a lot to sell in the
market, he may make special wire supports for them as you see in the picture.
First he must plant the yams in ridges. Then he must get some strong posts
and bury them 120 cm in the soil. He puts the posts in the hollows between
two ridges. Then he must tie wires to the end posts, at the top and at the
bottom. He uses wires and pegs to stop the end posts from moving.
1. Staking is needed for yams.
2. Different ways of staking for yams.
3. Cut some stakes to make "A frames" for your yam garden.
4. Put the A frames in the soil.
10.0 Weeding
It is very important for the yam garden to be weeded, especially in the
early stages when the yams are quite small. Weeds stop the growth of the
yams by stealing water, light and plant foods in the soil. Weeding can be
done in several ways:
1. In small gardens it is best to weed the yams by hand.
2. If the gardens are larger, the soil may be sprayed with Atrazine at the
rate of 3 kilograms per hectare. This spraying should be done when the soil
is still weed free just after planting the yams. This chemical will kill
any weeds that come up for the first three months.
3. After the yams have come up, patches of weeds may be sprayed with the
weed killer Paraquat, but care must be taken not to let the spray get on
the yams.
1. Bad effects of weeds on yam growth.
2. Weeding is most important in the early stages of growth.
3. Hand weeding.
4. Use of Atrazine. Because this kills weeds before they have come up, it
is called a pre-emergence spray.
5. Paraquat is a very strong weedicide so use it with care.
6. Weed the yam garden by hand.
1. Weeds steal water and plant foods from yams.
They may also keep sunlight off the plants.
2. There are 3 ways of killing weeds:
2.1 Hand weeding
2.2 Using pre-emergent sprays, e.g. Atrazine
2.3 Using very strong weed killers, e.g. Paraquat.
11.0 Fertilizers
Yams planted in very good soil or soil which has just been cleared from
bush usually do not need any fertilizers. If fertilizers are used, sometimes
the yams grow much better but sometimes it is hard to see if the fertilizers
have been good for the yams. If the soil is not very good, or if it has had
yams or other crops growing in it before, it is good to put some fertilizers
on the soil. Phosphorus and potash fertilizers should be sprinkled on the
soil near the yam tubers at planting time. The amount to use is about 50
kg per hectare. Eight weeks after planting, when the yam shoots are growing
up the stakes, then nitrogen fertilizer should be used at the rate of 100
kg per hectare. If the garden is quite small, these fertilizers should be
put on at the rate of one matchbox full of the fertilizer sprinkled over
the soil around each planting piece.
1. Yams grow better if they have a lot of plant food.
2. No fertilizer is needed on new ground.
3. Phosphorus and potash fertilizers can be put on the soil at planting time.
4. Nitrogen fertilizer can be used about 8 weeks after planting.
5. Spread some fertilizer on the yams.
1. Yams need no fertilizers on new ground.
2. On old gardens use phosphorus and potash fertilizers at planting time
at 50 kg per hectare.
3. Eight weeks after planting nitrogen fertilizer can be used at 100 kg
per hectare.
1. Yams grow better if they have a lot of plant
food.
2. No fertilizer is needed on new ground.
3. Phosphorus and potash fertilizers can be put on the soil at planting time.
4. Nitrogen fertilizer can be used about 8 weeks after planting.
5. Spread some fertilizer on the yams.
12.0 Fungus diseases
See diagram 63.12: Fungus diseases
There are two fungus diseases of yams that are found in many countries on
the winged yam. The first of these diseases is a dieback disease caused by
a fungus, Colletrotrichum sp. This
disease starts when water from heavy rains splashes the small seeds or spores
of the disease from the soil up onto the young leaves. The fungus does not
grow so well on the older leaves. The first signs of this disease are small
round brown dead spots on the leaves. There is a yellow colour on the outside
of the spots. Then later the dead spots grow in size until the whole leaf
has died. Then the whole branch with its stem and leaves may die back. Of
course this means that the tubers will not grow properly.
1. Yams need no fertilizers on new ground.
2. On old gardens use phosphorus and potash fertilizers at planting time
at 50 kg per hectare.
3. Eight weeks after planting nitrogen fertilizer can be used at 100 kg
per hectare.
There are two fungus diseases of yams that are
found in many countries on the winged yam. The first of these diseases is
a dieback disease caused by a fungus called Colletrotrichum. This disease
starts when water from heavy rains splashes the small seeds or spores of
the disease from the soil up onto the young leaves. The fungus does not grow
so well on the older leaves. The first signs of this disease are small round
brown dead spots on the leaves. There is a yellow colour on the outside of
the spots. Then later the dead spots grow in size until the whole leaf has
died. Then the whole branch with its stem and leaves may die back. Of course
this means that the tubers will not grow properly. This is a bad disease because
it cannot be cured, and there are not many things we can do to stop it. Some
of these things are as follows:
1. Do not keep the tubers from diseased plants to use as planting material.
2. Do not keep on planting yams in this soil, but use a rotation. Plant
another crop next year in this place.
3. Look for varieties of yams that do not get this disease. These varieties
will be resistant to the disease. They are the best varieties to grow.
4. If you know this disease may be in the soil, then you could spray the
plants when they are very young with a chemical called Benlate. This may
keep the fungus away from the plants.
5. Another thing that can be done is to plant the yams at a time when there
may not be many heavy rain storms. The danger of attack is less once the
yams have grown higher, because the older leaves do not get the disease so
easily.
Another fungus disease of yams is caused by a fungus, Rhizoctonia sp. This fungus gets into
the roots of tubers of the yams and rots them. There may be signs of the
disease low down on the stem near the soil. Dark coloured spots on this part
of the stem are called 11 collar rot". This fungus is carried by the tuber.
If there are any marks of this disease on the leaves, they are on one side
of the leaf only. The most important way of stopping this disease is not
to use tubers from diseased plants as planting material. The big tubers are
probably good to use for planting, but eat the small tubers which may have
this disease.
1. Fungus is very small and can only be seen properly
with a microscope.
2. The signs of the disease are small round brown spots which get bigger
until the leaves die. Ways of stopping the disease include do not keep diseased
tubers for planting, use a rotation, do not plant yams next year in this
soil, use resistant varieties, spray young plants with Benlate.
3. Collar rot disease.
4. Tubers from diseased plants must not be used for planting material.
Dieback is a bad disease of yams. It is caused by a fungus. This fungus makes
many small seeds called spores. These spores are splashed by the rain from
the soil onto the young leaves. The fungus makes spots come on the leaves.
Then the leaves die. The ways of stopping this disease are as follows:, do
not plant tubers from diseased plants. Do not plant yams in this soil next
year but use a rotation. Try to find resistant varieties of yams to plant.
Spray young plants with Benlate. Collar rot is another bad disease of yams.
It makes brown marks low down on the stems. The only way of stopping this
disease is to use healthy big tubers as planting.
13.0 Pests of yams
See diagram: Yam beetle
1. The yam beetle is a pest that starts as a curled grub that changes into
a beetle. Yam beetles may spoil the tubers by eating holes into them. Then
the tuber rots.
2. If the yam beetle is bad in your district you can wash the planting pieces
in lead arsenate and Bordeaux mixture. This will stop the grubs from eating
into the tubers and spoiling them.
3. Another thing to do is a rotation, do not plant yams twice in the same
soil, but use some other plant next year.
14.0 Climate for growing yams
1. Yams are hot weather plants and cannot stand frost.
2. The best temperature for yams is 30oC, and they do not grow
well if the temperature is below 20oC. Very high temperatures are
bad for yams.
3. Yams need to have enough water in the soil, especially between the 14th
and 20th weeks of growth.
4. Yams grow well if there is a dry season lasting 2, 5 months followed by
a wet season with at least 1150 mm of rain.
5. Yams like low altitudes, but can grow well if the land is not too high
above the sea.
6. Yams need a temperature of 30oC. They do not grow well if
the temperature is less than 20oC.
7. Yams need good rain especially between the 14th and 20th weeks of growth.
15.0 Varieties of yams
Know how to tell the different varieties of yams. You cannot do this without
seeing some varieties. You can either bring some leaves and tubers in to
the classroom, but taking students outside to see yams is probably best.
The best time to teach this lesson is at the end of the yam season, just
before the yams are harvested.
1. Yam varieties have different shaped leaves, different shaped tubers, different
colours in the flesh of the tubers, different in their taste.
2. These are some leaves of yam varieties. Write the names of varieties under
each.
3. Yam varieties have different shaped tubers. Some varieties of yams grow
quickly, e.g. They are ready to dig in 7 months to 10 months.
16.0 Harvesting yams
1. Go outside to dig yams. Note the signs that the yams are mature and ready
to dig.
2. Explain to students the need for care in digging yams so that the tubers
are not damaged or bruised.
3. Weigh the tubers produced by 10 plants. Calculate the average weight of
tubers produced by each plant.
4. Students take the tubers into a shady place.
1. Our yam tubers weighed . . . kg each.
2. This means that we could get about - tonnes of tubers from a hectare
of yams.
3. Care is needed in harvesting yams. Do not bruise or damage the yams.
17.0 Storage of yams
See diagram 63.17: Sprouting yams
Yams keep better than any other root crop. Sometimes yams can be stored for
3 or 4 months.
1. Yams can be stored better than any other root crop.
2. The yams must first be dried by spreading them out under a house.
3. Then they can be stored in any cool dry place. In some islands the people
keep the yams in a special yam house.
4. Do not put damaged yams with the others. They should be eaten.
5. Yams can be stored until they start to sprout, Then they should be planted.
It is bad if the sprouts get too long and are broken off. Another sprout
will not grow from this place.
18.0 Global Initiative underway
to preserve yam biodiversity
16 September 2010
World yam collection in Nigeria provides ultimate rescue for African yam
diversity in an initiative to conserve critical crop collections backed by
the Global Crop Diversity Trust
Farmers and crop scientists world wide are engaged in an ambitious new effort
to add 3,000 yam samples to international gene banks to save the diversity
of a crop consumed by 60 million people on a daily basis in Africa alone,
according to an announcement today from the Global Crop Diversity Trust.
In most countries of the African yam belt, many potentially important yam
varieties are preserved only in fields, where they are in danger of being
picked off by pests or diseases and more common disasters like fire or flooding.
For example, a large fire recently destroyed a yam collection in Togo. Civil
conflicts have also resulted in collections being destroyed.
Yam varieties gathered from West and Central African countries through the
project are being sent to the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture
(IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria, where tissue samples of the crop will eventually
be frozen at ultra low temperatures in liquid nitrogen, a technique known
as cryoconservation, which offers the most secure form of long-term storage
currently available. Most of the world's crops can be conserved over long
periods simply by drying the seeds and storing them under cold, dry conditions.
However, most crops, including yams, cannot be stored so easily and must
be conserved as vegetative material in tissue culture.
Farmers in West Africa's "yam belt," which includes the countries of Nigeria,
C6te d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin and Togo, produce more than 90 percent of the
world's yams. The project, however, will also include yam varieties collected
in the Philippines, Vietnam, Costa Rica, the Caribbean and several Pacific
nations. It is the first world wide effort to conserve yam species and cultivars.
The project is funded with support from the UN Foundation and the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation.
“This opportunity to protect an incredibly wide variety of yams allows us
to feel more reassured that the unique diversity of yams will be safely secured
and available to future generations”, said Alexandre Dansi, a yam expert
at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin.
For Benin, which sits squarely in the buckle of the yam belt, the yam is
an integral part of the culture and community life. The large tubers weighing
up to 70 kilos are a common sight on roadside markets. Dansi has worked with
producers to catalogue about 250 discrete types of yams and more than 1,000
named yam varieties. He is collaborating with farmers to document additional
varieties. According to farmers' reports, many traditional varieties are
disappearing in their production zones because of high susceptibility to
pests and diseases, poor soil, soil moisture content, weeds and drought,
which make them less productive or more costly to grow compared to other
crops such as cassava.
Through Dansi's work, Benin has already sent 847 yam samples to the IITA.
At IITA, the tubers will be grown out in fields, and cuttings taken for conservation
in the lab as part of an international collection that already contains about
3,200 yam samples from West Africa.
Thousands of years of cultivation have resulted in a wide diversity of yam
varieties existing in farmers' fields, particularly In West Africa. In some
parts of Africa (mainly Benin and Nigeria), yams are still being domesticated
from wild tubers found in the forest. The popularity of the crop remains
high with consumers, and sellers get a high price in urban markets. However,
yams remain under researched despite their potential to bring farmers out
of poverty in one of the world's poorest regions. Using the collection now
being assembled to find valuable traits that provide disease resistance and
higher yields is key to improving farmers’ fortunes.
“It is really akin to putting money in the bank”, said Cary Fowler, executive
director of the Trust. “All crops routinely face threats from plant pests,
disease, or shifting weather patterns, and a country's ability to breed new
varieties to overcome these challenges is directly tied to what they have
in the bank, not just about financial resources but about the diversity in
their crop collections.”
The yam project is part of a broader effort involving major crop species
world wide in which the Trust is helping partners in 68 countries, including
38 in Africa alone, to rescue and regenerate more than 80,000 endangered
accessions in crop collections and send duplicates to international gene
banks and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the Arctic Circle.
For yams, reproduced through vegetative propagation, IITA offers the only
long-term form of conservation. Conserving the crop requires extracting tissue
in the laboratory and freezing it in liquid nitrogen. However, the technique
demands careful research and a staff of dedicated skilled technicians. Most
African countries cannot afford to give their yam diversity this kind of
attention.
At IITA, the DNA of the samples coming from locations around the world will
also be analyzed to get a better sense of the genetic diversity contained
in various collections. This is not, however, an academic exercise. It helps
the gene bank managers avoid keeping too many copies of the same material.
It also helps the search for valuable genes that can provide the traits needed
to deal with diseases or climate change.
“This project is fascinating because it involves the most traditional and
the most advanced techniques of crop conservation. We would like to deploy
the best tools science has to offer to secure centuries of yam cultivation,”
said Dominique Dumet, head of the Genetic Resources Center (GRC) at I1TA.
I1TA also will be offering a stable and safe haven for yam collections that
must sometimes endure unusual stress. For example, Cote D'Ivoire, will be
sending 5050 yam samples to IITA for conservation from a collection that,
after the civil war In 2002, had to be moved from Bouake in the north to
Abidjan.
“We are building up our collection again, but some varieties were lost,”
said Amani Kouakou, a scientist at Cote D’Ivoire's Centre National de Recherch6
Agronomique. “We welcome the chance to share the material with UTA and discover
new materials that we have never cultivated in this country”.
Meanwhile, in Benin, Dansi is using the project as an opportunity to work
with farmers to test and characterize materials, exchange varieties and techniques
between different yam growing regions in Benin, and build up better community
storage barns for keeping the tubers in good health until the next planting
season.
“The security we now have is reassuring and allows us to focus on other things,
like working with farmers to improve yields,” Dansi said. "On top of that
we can now ask 1ITA for interesting yams from other parts of the world that
we may never have seen before in Benin.”
The mission of the Global Crop Diversity Trust is to ensure the conservation
and availability of crop diversity for food security world wide. Although
crop diversity is fundamental to fighting hunger and to the very future of
agriculture, funding is unreliable and diversity is being lost. The Trust
is the only organization working world wide to solve this problem, and has
already raised more than $140 million. For further information, please visit:
www.croptrust.org.
About IITA (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture) (www.iita.org)
Africa has complex problems that plague agriculture and people's lives. We
develop agricultural solutions with our partners to tackle hunger and poverty.
Our award winning research for development (R4D) is based on focussed, authoritative
thinking anchored on the development needs of sub-Saharan Africa. We work
with partners in Africa and beyond to reduce producer and consumer risks,
enhance crop quality and productivity, and generate wealth from agriculture.
UTA is an international non profit R4D organization established in 1967,
governed by a Board of Trustees, and supported primarily by the CGIAR.
History
These teaching materials were originally written and illustrated by Mr J.
A. Sutherland, Faculty of Education, University of New England, Armidale,
Australia and later edited by Dr J. Elfick, School of Education, University
of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.