Given all the government talk about agriculture lately, I am waiting for the details of a yam production plan that will allow to sector to match crude oil revenues

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Do Nigerians know that their country is the world’s largest yam producer, accounting for about 70% of global output? We produce about 62m tonnes annually, dwarfing the output of all the other producers

[2] Are we also aware of the fact that the global yam market size is was estimated to be $13.69bn in 2023, $14.4bn in 2024 and is expected to be worth to $25bn by 2035. Nigeria is certainly not generating that kind of revenue from the sector

[3] Yam is an important dietary element for Nigerian and West African people. It contributes more than 200 calories per person per day for more than 150m people across West Africa. There will thus always be a demand for it. We should have a plan to make it as popular as say rice globally

[4] In Europe and North America, yam is used as an animal feed supplement. It is added to livestock feed compounds. Just imagine how much Nigeria would generate if we were exporting yam to livestock farmers in every European Community country

[5] In Nigeria, our cattle are skinny and bony because we do not have the initiative to feed them compounds. Like the caveman, we still allow our livestock to graze off grass, which is low in nutritional content

[6] One of the reasons behind the current herdsmen crisis in Nigeria is that our cattle are thinking ahead of us. Tired of eating grass, they are going into farms to eat more nutritious foods like yam and maize

[7] Do you know that across Asia, yam is also used in numerous traditional meals? For instance in China, it is used to make Taro paste, a traditional Cantonese cuisine. Also in India, it is a popular accompaniment to rice dishes and fish curry

[8] If our Nigerian agriculture ministry officials did a tour of Japan, Vietnam, The Philippines and Indonesia, they would find out that there is a market worth at least $10bn for yam products. With the right storage and transportation facilities, we could easy establish a global monopoly

[9] Nigeria should own the world’s only Global Yam Trading Company that processes and distributes the crop worldwide. This sector should easily match the $50bn we get annually from the sale of crude oil. For some reason we have this mental block that oil and gas is the only way to wealth

[10] Not only should we be producing yam but we should also be manufacturing specialist equipment like a yam harvester, yam peelers, yam grinders, etc. Our economic problems are essentially psychological. We simply do not have enough faith to let go of crude oil. If not, yam alone would easily match what we generate from petroleum

ayoakinfe@gmail.com