Michael J. Ssali
10 September 2008
For a long time, relatively little attention has been paid to yam growing as an economic activity in Uganda. Yams are root crops that generally take a bit longer to grow compared to other root crops such as potatoes or cassava.
The price of yams has remained generally high since low production has kept them scarce. We hardly have an ethnic community in the country that can be said to eat yams as a staple food. But they are a much-valued foodstuff eaten along other foods like matooke, millet, rice and potatoes.
And with the emigration of Africans to Europe and elsewhere, the demand for yams is increasing on the export market as more and more people in the Diaspora continue to relish typical African foodstuffs such as yams. Raw food exporters these days traverse the countryside in search of yams, hence the need for farmers to scale up production.
Food security
As the campaign for household food security gains momentum, yams are some of the food crops whose production has got to be emphasised. Once planted, the farmer does not have to spend a lot of time looking after them apart from trellising the vines onto poles or trees growing on the farm.
By nature, they are creepers and trees provide a very good growing environment for them. Native to the tropics, especially in Africa, where in the past they grew naturally in the forests, they are not attacked by many pests and diseases so even spraying with pesticides whose cost is on the rise is not something that should make a farmer worry. Since they grow underground and can easily be intercropped with other plants, the farmer does not have to devote all the field space to yams.
However, should he or she choose to specialise in yam production, like many do in West Africa, it is possible to have planting densities of 10,000 white yam plants per hectare. If the farmer is to grow the white yam (D alata), he will have to make heaps of soil in which to plant the crop, trellising the vines on poles or trees in the field.
Cheap to grow
Yams grow in a variety of soils, nearly always giving good yields, and since production is not so labour-intensive, they can be cheap to produce. Harvesting takes place between 10 and 18 months depending on the variety grown and the fertility of the soil.
Upon being harvested, they are only washed or cleaned and cooked without having to be processed as is the case of grains and legumes. When harvested, they tend to last a little longer than say matooke, which ripens fast. When a smaller piece is cut from a big yam for cooking, a thin hard layer quickly develops over the exposed inner area of the remaining yam to offer further skin protection and to enhance durability.
The yellow yam variety locally known as kyetutumula in Luganda (D rotundata Poir) has tended to attract greater demand in Kampala and many other towns over the recent years. Some people have it with coffee or tea for breakfast, as a substitute for bread, and many restaurants serve it regularly.
Mr Joseph Kakeeto, Ms Eseza Ndagire and Ms Rachel Nampijja belong to Agali Awamu Kasaana Mixed Farmers Group in Masaka District. They displayed perhaps the largest yellow yam during the farmers' show that took place between August 13 and 18 in Masaka's Liberation Square.
How to produce big yams
Their trick for charvesting such big yams is to dig a hole about three feet deep and about four square feet wide. They fill it up with some grass then cover with a thin layer of soil and let it decompose for some two or three weeks before planting the yellow yam. When the soil sinks in, after the grass under it has shrunk, the farmer plants the yam, cutting in the remaining space and covering most of it with soil. Planting material is always obtained from other yams by cutting off the upper parts nearest to the vines.
Furthermore, the grass layer, though most of it rots in the soil, will encourage the yam to expand sideways instead of downwards. When the yam extends too deep into the ground as it grows, digging it up at the time of harvest becomes a problem. Some people will even place a layer of banana stems at the bottom of the hole during planting time specifically to encourage sideways expansion as the yam grows.
A few weeks after the yam has been planted, it sprouts, sending out a strong vine that the farmer will trellis to any nearby tree. And if farmers are encouraged to plant trees on their farms, they are better off planting two or three yellow yams around every tree to increase food production.
The yellow yam is ready for harvest usually after 12 months when its leaves turn yellow and dry up. But some farmers may choose not to harvest it then, causing it to sprout again and grow a lot bigger in the next 12 months.
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