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Panafrican News Agency (PANA) Daily Newswire: African experts want more investment in yam production. 570 words Ibadan, Nigeria (PANA) - Experts holding a two-day workshop Africa at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan, in southwestern Nigeria, on yam research development in West and Central have called on regional leaders to invest more in yam production for local consumption and export purposes. Teferi-Bel Amakeletetch, representative of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said the West and Central African countries which provide the highest yam production in the world needed to use their comparative advantage to reduce poverty, achieve food security and earn foreign exchange. IFAD provided finance for the workshop and a three-year research project into the crop. In line with that goal, she said the UN Agency had committed enormous resources into research that will enhance the livelihoods of yam producers, processors and consumers. ''The current focus of the research grant portfolio is on improving partnerships in adaptive research programmes as well as emphasising the development of both technological options and institutional arrangements to provide sustained support to improve the level of poor rural communities,'' Amakeletetch said. Kenneth Nwosu of Nigeria 's National Root Crops Research Institute expressed concern that even though the country produces about 27 million metric tons of yam annually -- about 68 percent of the world's total production -- its cultivation however could go down due to inadequate support. ''I believe the support given to cassava should be extended to yam as well. The federal government having listed cassava and rice as presidential crops, yam should also be listed as such as the world's largest producers of the crop,'' Nwosu said Tuesday at the opening of the workshop. Also speaking at the workshop, Emmanuel Otoo, head of National IFAD/WECARD yam project in Ghana underscored the importance, which his country attached to yam as the highest exporter in Africa . ''In terms of its importance as far as exports are concerned, it is second only to pineapple which is our real non-traditional export crop and we are getting so much from the crop that it has been re-classified as a traditional export crop,'' Otoo said. ''We export almost 50 percent of our 13 million metric tons (of yam) annually,'' the Ghanaian researcher said. Another participant from the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development in Cameroon , Njumalem Dominic, said lack of infrastructural development and inadequate supports had prevented the country from benefiting fully from the huge potentials of the crop. A representative of the farmers' group in Nigeria, Tola Adepomola, listed storage facilities, transportation, inadequate funding, land clearing, access to research information and modern technology as some of the problems facing his members. He also called for more collaborative efforts between yam researchers and farmers. IITA's director of research and development, Standford Blade said the organisation remained committed to working closely with partners in Africa and beyond to ensure continued research and capacity building for yam development. Yam is an extremely important crop for at least 60 million people, comprising rural poor producers, processors and consumers in West Africa . It provides multiple opportunities for poverty reduction and nourishment that gives 30 billion calories of energy in the continent. Nigeria , Benin , Togo , Ghana , Cote 'd Ivoire and Cameroon , from whence workshop participants came, account for 92 percent of the world's annual yam production of about 40 million metric tons, experts said.
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