NAN-AE-7
Yam
By Okon Okon
Abuja, Oct. 18, 2017 (NAN) Prof. Joseph Ukpabi, a professor of Food Technology/Biochemistry on Wednesday attributed Nigeria’s poor yam exportation to poor storage of the commodity and failure to consult with food scientists.
Ukpabi, who is also a visiting lecturer at World Bank Assisted – Centre for Food Technology and Research, Benue State University, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Cue in audio (Ukpabi)
“The problem of yam is, no proper consultation, we are the institute in charge of root and tubers in Nigeria.
“Unfortunately, we were not consulted before the yam exportation started and we have a book on how to handle yam storage.
“Like diseases in human beings, you need to know, see the yam, know the cause of the problems before we now say this is what caused the problem, so I don’t know what happens to the yam, we are not involved.
“So when we are involved, we have to look at what led to the yams, the varieties of yam they sent.
“Some yams soft better than the others, some yams are cured; some yams can even geminate at certain times.
“Just let me give you an instance, if you harvest yam in November, if you keep it to March the next year, it starts geminating but most yams if you harvest under one month, they geminate.
“Some yams if you cure them, there’s what we call curing, they don’t have surfaces for infection. Some yams, if they are stored at certain temperature, they start to deterioration.
“So let me even see how the yams were transported, length of storage, then I can now start giving an answer to what happened, but unfortunately, we were not involved. “
Cue out audio
Don, however, advised the local farmers to always be in contact with food scientists for proper guidance on food storage and preservation to boost their capacity in food security.
“Advice I have to give to not local farmers, but people exporting yams to get across to national root crops, let’s see their problems and tell them the solutions.“ Ukpabi said. (NAN)
MZM/DOR/YEE
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Edited by Nyisom Dore/Emmanuel Yashim