Audu Ogbeh, minister of agriculture, says Nigeria’s
export of yam to the UK and the US will not lead to a
scarcity of the crop.
He said Nigeria does not consume all the yam it
produces, and that most of it end up as waste.
Speaking with state house correspondents after the
federal executive council (FEC) meeting in Abuja on
Wednesday, the minister disclosed that the country
would begin export of three containers of yam to the
UK and the US on Thursday.
“We informed the council that last week we completed
arrangements for the first formal export of Nigerian
yams to the United Kingdom,” 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
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 definitely are
not short of food although prices are high in some
areas, we are not short of food,” he said.
“Apart from the crisis in the north-east we definitely
are not short of food although prices are high in some
areas, we are not short of food.
“Tomorrow (Thursday) we shall flag off this export in
three container loads containing 72 tonnes of Nigerian
yams. Two containers went out in February; one
arrived in New York on the 16th of this month. This 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 percent 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 find Nigerian yams in the
market, it is an embarrassment. Because Ghana is
targeting $4billion of yams in the next three years and
if they can do that, we who are the masters of yam
production have no business lagging behind.
“We don’t even consume all the yams we produce here
because most of it is lost to wastage because of poor
technologies in preservation. We are going to solar
coolers in yam markets and yam producing areas to
keep the temperature at 14 degrees Celsius, not frozen
but to keep it at that temperature so that it can be
good all year round and can last up to two to three
years in the containers.”
TheCable
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