Yam is sub-Saharan Africa’s second most-important root and tuber crop after cassave, with an annual production of around 75mn tonnes
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a US$3.87mn grant to support the development of better-growing yam varieties using gene editing.
The funding injection was announced by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), a not-for-profit institution that encourages agricultural innovation to address poverty in Africa, in partnership with US technology specialist Pairwise.
Together, the partners will use the funding in support of the Yam Optimised Architecture through Gene Editing project – also known as Yoage – which aims to reduce labour requirements, enable mechanisation, and reduce environmental impacts in production of the staple food crop in Nigeria.
According to the IITA, citing FAO figures, yam is the second most-important root and tuber crop in sub-Saharan Africa after cassava, with a production of about 75mn tonnes in 2021.
The institute said it provided about 200kcal per day to over 400mn people in tropical low-income and food-deficit countries.
Africa produces over 97 per cent of yams grown worldwide, with Nigeria alone accounting for about 66 per cent of the world’s total.
