It is expected that in the course of the project, Plant breeders and technicians working in the Yam breeding programs at IITA and in national research organizations in Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Benin are strengthened to facilitate implementation of modern breeding approaches

The focus will be on classical breeding (including pest and disease resistance and quality), development of phenotyping protocols and integration of molecular approaches into variety development. Project partners will also have the opportunity to study how the sequencing of the yam genome is impacting plant breeding in that crop.

In addition, hands-on trainings will be implemented for both breeders and technicians from partner countries on field techniques such as pollination, yam flowering, fruit and seed set production, physiological and genetic influence on flowering, environmental effects of flowering, varietal effect, treatments to increase flowering. The practical content of the training will include: preparation of tools and inputs, setting up crossing blocks, bagging and contamination, pollination: time, tools, pollen and male flower manipulation, identification and labeling, pollination data collection, pollination data management as well as vine propagation to improve the efficiency of breeding and selection.

A Yam community of practice (YCoP) has been established and is focused on accelerated breeding and distribution of farmer and market preferred yam varieties which are resistant to pests and diseases with good quality parameters. YCoP can be accessed through the AfricaYam project website at www.africayam.org . Read More