The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture has urged the Federal Government to place the development of Nigeria’s seed yam value chain at the centre of its agricultural policy agenda, warning that the country risks losing its competitive edge in a crop where it currently leads the world.

IITA Deputy Director-General, Partnerships for Delivery and Scaling, Dr Tahirou Abdoulaye, speaking at the National Yam Advocacy Summit in Abuja, said yam remains Nigeria’s most valuable food crop, yet its productivity and commercial potential are far below what science and markets now make possible.

The summit, themed Catalysing a National Agenda for Yam Value Chain Transformation through Improved Seed Technologies, brought together researchers, policymakers, farmers and private-sector players to chart a path for modernising yam production.

Abdoulaye stressed that a robust seed system is the foundation for any serious transformation, noting that quality seed yams determine yield, resilience to pests and diseases, and suitability for processing and export.

He explained that improved varieties and new propagation methods can dramatically increase multiplication rates, overturning the long-held belief that yam is inherently slow and costly to propagate. Technologies such as Single-Node Cutting, also known as leaf-bud cuttings, now allow rapid multiplication of clean planting material with relatively low inputs.

According to him, scaling these innovations would narrow yield gaps, cut production losses and position Nigeria to better serve growing demand from the diaspora and Caribbean markets, where Nigerian yams already enjoy strong cultural and culinary appeal.

Head of Station, IITA Abuja, Prof Beatrice Aighewi, highlighted the Seed System Innovation for Vegetatively Propagated Crops in Africa initiative, which deploys leaf-cutting techniques to generate large volumes of disease-free seed from a small number of mother plants.

She identified poor-quality seed as a central constraint, pointing out that Nigerian farmers currently harvest only eight to 10 tonnes of yam per hectare, far below the 30-tonne potential under improved management. With seed accounting for up to 60 per cent of production costs, she argued that better regulation, certification and quality assurance are essential to protect farmers’ investments and attract private seed enterprises.

A senior programme officer at the Gates Foundation, Mr Audu Grema, described yam as one of Nigeria’s most profitable crops whose economic promise remains underexploited, while the President of the National Association of Yam Farmers, Processors and Marketers, Dr Simon Irtwange, welcomed recent policy reforms, including the repeal of the 1986 yam export ban, as a springboard for building a globally competitive yam industry anchored on a reliable seed system.