Researchers at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have come up with soilless yam propagation as they have successfully grown seed yams in the air using aeroponics technology.
The fete is raising hopes
and more options for the propagation of virus- and disease-free planting
materials.
In preliminary trials, Dr
Norbert Maroya, Project Manager for the Yam Improvement for Incomes and Food
Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) project at IITA, together with a team of
scientists successfully propagated yam by directly planting vine cuttings in
Aeroponics System (AS) boxes to produce mini-tubers in the air.
Aeroponics System is the process
of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an
aggregate medium. The technology is widely used by commercial potato seed
producers in eastern Africa – like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Southern
Africa like Mozambique, Malawi - but successfully growing yam on
aeroponics is a novelty for rapidly multiplying the much needed clean seed yam
tubers in large quantities.
“With this approach we are
optimistic that farmers will begin to have clean seed yams for better harvest,”
Dr Maroya said
Preliminary results showed that vine rooting in Aeroponics System had at least
95% success rate compared to vine rooting in carbonized rice husk with a
maximum rate of 70%. Rooting time was much shorter in aeroponics.
Aeroponics is coming at an opportune time for African farmers. Traditionally,
seed yam production is expensive and inefficient. Farmers save about 25 to 30%
of their harvest for planting the same area in the following season, meaning
less money in their pockets.
Moreover, these saved seeds are
often infested with pathogens that significantly reduce farmers’ yield year
after year.
However with an established
Aeroponics System for seed yam propagation at the premises of an interested
private investor, seed company or humanitarian nongovernmental organization;
yam producers can have access to clean seed yams.
The soilless yam propagation
system will increase the productivity of seed and ware yam and effectively
reduce diseases and pests incidence and severity (no soilborne or
vector-transmitted pests and diseases during the vegetative phase).
Dr Robert Asiedu, IITA Director
for Western Africa described the results as “impressive.” “Yam is an important
crop in Africa and addressing the seeds’ constraint will go a long way in
improving the livelihoods of farmers who depend on the crop for their livelihood,”
he added.
In conducting the aeroponics
trial, a special structure was built in an existing screen house with Dixon
shelf frames using perforated styrofoam box, as support for plant vines, while
the developing roots of the plants in the air were enclosed in conditions of
total darkness to simulate the situation of soil to the roots. For the plant
and tuber to develop, an automated power house system was established for
atomizing periodically nutrient enriched water solution in the form of mist to
feed the plants.
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