The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) estimated that Ghana has overtaken Nigeria in yam exportation as the quality of the produce from Nigeria has dropped due to high dependency on traditional planting system.

Nobert Maroya from Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa announced this fact in Ibadan during a meeting of the organization’s experts with Nigerian seed production companies.

Maroya stated that the project had developed high ratio propagation technologies such as vine cuttings, aeroponics and bioreactor to address the constraints of quality and multiplication in seed yam production.

The IITA’s project manager said that for Nigeria to profit from the huge financial gain in yam exports, it must develop efficient seed production, distribution and quality assurance systems.