By Abdullahi M. Gulloma Abuja
Th e federal government would today formally fl ag-off the export of yam to Europe and other parts of the globe, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said yesterday. Speaking to State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, Ogbeh said 72 tonnes of yams would be exported to the United Kingdom (UK) in the fi rst phase of the exportation programme. Yam, a tuber crop, is a staple food in Nigeria and is grown in several parts of the country.
He said: “Some people have asked whether by exporting yams we are not going to subject Nigeria to hunger and I had to inform council today that that will not certainly not rise. “You will remember about February or March this year some of you asked the same question, is Nigeria going to face famine? And I said it cannot happen. Apart from the crisis in the North east we defi nitely are not short of food although prices are high in some areas, we are not short of food. “Tomorrow we shall fl ag off this export in three container loads containing 72tones of Nigerian yams. Two containers went out in February, one arrived in New York on the 16th of this month.
“Th is is important because for those of you who travel and many Nigerians out there, you go to shops where they sell African foods and you never see anything from Nigeria, it is mostly called Ghana yams. “Now we account for 61% of the total output of yams in the world according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the rest is shared between some countries in the West Africa and the West Indies. For us to go abroad and not fi nd Nigerian yams in the market, it is an embarrassment.” Th e minister also expressed concern that Nigerians don’t even consume all the yams they produce because most of it is lost to wastage because of poor technologies in preservation. He said Ghana is targeting $4billion from yams in the next three years and if they can do that, then Nigerians who are the masters of yam production have no business lagging behind.
