Awutu Bawjiase (C/R), Aug. 15, GNA - The Ministry of Environment and Science is spearheading the production of lesser-known varieties of yam on large scale to increase production and to preserve disappearing yam varieties.

Seed materials of identified varieties such as nkani, afase, punju, santom and apuka being planted on a pilot scale at Bawjiase in the Central Region are to be produced on larger quantities for the benefit of yam farmers in the catchment area of the Awutu-Afutu-Senya District Assembly.

The Ministry is running the project, which is under the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy, together with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and the Biotechnology Nuclear Agricultural Institute of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission.

The collaborating organisations on Friday organised a meeting with extension officers and yam farmers from the Bawjiase Area to discuss the new technology on the production of the lesser know varieties and followed it up with a stakeholders meeting. The farmers came from Awutu Obrachire, Fianko, Baabiara Ni and Odumase.

Captain Steve Armah (rtd), District Chief Executive, Awutu-Efutu-Senya District, said that yam is a food security crop, because of its longer storage period. He said the availability of more planting materials would reduce the unit cost of production per hectare adding that the technology would also conserve the genome of lesser-known yam varieties for further research. He said farmers should be taught to teach their colleagues how to store the varieties or process them.

Captain Armah urged the farmers to adopt the new technology and appealed to the researchers and extension officers to meet the farmers regularly teach them diseases and pests control methods. Dr Rexford Osei, Acting Director of Policy Planning, Evaluation and Monitoring of the Environment and Science Ministry, said studies have shown that subsistence farmers are among the hardest hit by poverty, stemming from insufficient planting materials, inefficient use of land and poor marketing strategies.

He said the new yam growing technology, along with other intervention measures is an indication of Government's readiness to reverse the situation. The farmers expressed their readiness to embrace the new technology.

However, they cited low prices and marketing problems with their harvested cassava under the President's Special Initiative, and demanded reassurance that they would be given the right prices if they adopted the new technology that would lead to increased production. Madam Felicia Quainoo, a farmer at Bawjiase, said the high rent paid on land was discouraging most farmers from adopting cassava cultivation and suggested to Government to acquire lands from the traditional authorities and employ farmers. 15 Aug. 03