Nigeria Content Online

The Japanese
government has called for more support from partners on yam research to
prevent the threats of food crises in Africa.

The Japanese
Ambassador to Nigeria, Toshitsugu Uesawa, made the call at the
commissioning of Japan-assisted projects in IITA-Abuja station at the
weekend.

Mr. Uesawa lauded
the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture for its cutting
edge research in root and tuber crops which has produced several
innovative outputs such as the propagation of yam through vine
cuttings. “IITA’s efforts have contributed towards sustainable
development of agriculture in developing countries,” he said.

He emphasized that
“IITA’s role has been great,” but said more attention should be given
to the project. Part of the facilities commissioned by the Japanese
envoy included a root and tuber processing centre with processing
machines, soil preparation shade and a screen house.

The projects were
financed at a cost of over US$82,000 from the Japanese Grass Roots
Project, which aims to improve the livelihoods of rural people.
Hidehiko Kikuno, a yam Physiologist at IITA, called on farmers to tap
the available agricultural innovations from IITA and also to maximize
the use of the facilities.

Mr. Kikuno, who has
successfully propagated yam through vine cuttings, advised farmers to
adopt the method saying that with the vine propagation technique, the
propagation rate would be high with a possibility to reduce the cost of
seed yam.

Fortified banana

Meanwhile, in a
major scientific breakthrough, IITA-Uganda crop scientists have
successfully transferred genes from green pepper to bananas to enable
the crop to resist the Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW). The research to
fortify banana against BXW using genes from sweet pepper was initiated
in 2007.

BXW is one of the
most devastating diseases of banana in the Great Lakes region of Africa
that causes about half a billion dollars worth of damage yearly. The
transformed banana was infused with plant ferredoxin-like amphipathic
protein (Pflp) or hypersensitive response-assisting protein (Hrap) from
green pepper and they have exhibited strong resistance to BXW in the
laboratory and screen-houses. Some of the findings of the research have
been published in the Molecular Plant Pathology Journal.