Cooked yam tubers for sale: Consumer loses, farmer loses, trader gains

Yam (Dioscorea spp.), dear reader, you will agree with me, is very delicious especially ‘Pona’ and ‘Larebokor’ which are tastier and more aromatic than perfume rice. In the Upper West region and some parts of the Savanna Region, the eating of seed yam (small yam tubers) boiled unpeeled, called “Wakpoluo” in Wali is a delicacy in the afternoons after yam harvest. Apart from its role as an important staple, yam plays very significant roles in some of our ceremonies like; puberty rites. In some parts of our country, yam festivals are regularly celebrated to honour the crop.

These festivals clearly suggest the important roles yam has played in the survival of some of our ancestors, when probably the then prevailing weather conditions were not favourable for the cultivation of the crop they normally survived on.

Yam and other root and tuber crops are very resilient and various types are grown across the country, even under cocoa farms cocoyam and “Kookoase-bayere” grow well and not to mention the “Frafra potato” in the Upper East of Ghana which thrives very well under very dry conditions. Cocoyam was a food security crop for the Akans, it was the last crop left to be harvested during the lean season.

“Cooked” Yam Tuber- Consumer Loses

But the current commercial system is making yam lose its popularity amid stiff competition from perfume rice, which is now very much preferred by the up-and-coming generation.

I lived at Wa during my childhood days and always followed my friends to their fathers’ farms and saw how yam was produced from the time of planting to harvesting. The harvested yam tubers were treated with tender loving care! The tubers were first spread under shady trees for their surfaces to dry and later covered with dry grass a process called curing. For temporary storage for the market, the yam tubers with dry surfaces were heaped and covered with dry grass.

On market days, the tubers were carried in open basins to the market with air freely blowing around them. At the selling spots, bought tubers were heaped and covered with dry grass which did not only allow air to blow around the tubers but also provided the tubers with a cool environment while waiting to be transported. When being conveyed to the urban markets, the floors of the transporting vehicles were covered with grass and the yam tubers were packed in layers with grass serving as cushions and insulators between them. When a vehicle was fully loaded, the top layer was covered with grass. The layers of grass allowed the free flow of air around the packed yam tubers, and served as cushions and insulators while in transit.

When you saw a vehicle loaded with yam moving, you would think it was a Savanna field on wheels!!

The yam tubers arrived at the urban markets fresh and they were packed in heaps and covered with the dry grass they came along with in transit. Yam tubers properly handled as such have a longer shelf-life even at the home of a consumer.

I am a lover of yam and I used to buy yam and store from one season to another. Some tubers even sprouted in storage and I cut the “heads” of the sprouted tubers and planted in my backyard garden. But what are we experiencing in the yam industry now? You buy your favourite yam, apparently looking good, and send home, and within a few days you pick your yam tuber to peel and it soft almost along its whole length! And you are shocked! Because when you bought it, is looked so wholesome – what a loss.

Yam “Cooking” Process
Consumers are made to understand that the rotting of yam tubers in storage is the result of application of pesticides and fertilizers. But honestly, very few yam farmers can afford to buy these agrochemicals to manage their farms. They farm naturally! The soft-rot of yam tubers being experienced by both yam sellers and consumers is due to their poor handling during harvesting, after harvesting and transporting to the urban markets. Yam tubers are as delicate as they are delicious and tasty. They respire like human beings (Acquaye, 1969) just that their noses are not like ours!! They respire over their entire skin surface. When tubers are in enclosed containers in urban centres they are being suffocated. Unlike yams, cocoyams are hardier and store better under similar condition even though they respire like yams, provided there are no cuts on the corms.

The rough handling that leaves cuts and bruises on the tubers and the warm conditions under which they are transported from farms to the buying centres are the major cause of soft-rot of yam purchased by consumers. Nowadays it is common to see yam tubers heaped in the hot sun and covered with bags at the buying centres. Some tubers are even packed in sacks! Those selling along our major trunk roads leave the yam tubers displayed in the hot sun either covered with tarpaulin or polythene sheets; and the sellers sit in the shade under trees waiting for buyers, not knowing that they are sun - “cooking” the yam tubers before they get to the kitchen.

Those who buy the already sun “cooked yam tubers” conveniently pack them in the synthetic bags and lock them in their car boots. Buyers with pick-ups put bagged yam tubers in their buckets and may cover them with polythene sheet depending on the values of the other items in the buckets too.

For transportation from the major yam buying centre to the urban markets the yam tubers are packed tight in the vehicles without grass layers between them. This does not allow air to flow around the tubers while in transit. And worst of all, the vehicles loaded with yam tend to be covered with tarpaulin as if they are contraband goods!!

As if the tightly packed yam tubers in transit need further cooking at the urban selling centres; the tubers are displayed in the sun in heaps of various sizes according to their value. The tubers which are displayed are packed tight in wooden structures or containers, without adequate ventilation, and for security reasons are locked tightly after the close of the day. The longer the yam tubers are stored under such conditions, the shorter their shelf life both in the market and at consumer’s home.

Change In National Food Policy
The availability of yam in our markets almost throughout the whole year under our current worsening weather conditions should tell Ghanaians that since we cannot reverse the climate change to suit the production of our grain crops such as maize, the nation should be prepared to create the conditions for the production of root and tuber crops which are very resilient and can thrive under conditions which do not favour the production of grain crops. Is it not amazing that down in the southern part of Ghana now, we are eating ‘fresh yam’ before ‘fresh corn’ – the popular “mouth organ”, which we eat to fill the hunger gap before harvest?

The climate change being drummed worldwide did not start today. It started from when man was felling timber from Lebanon to build the temple in Jerusalem. That was when according to Bohannan (1964), the Sahara was encroached 12,000 years ago. Also, the depletion of the oceans of sperm whales by the industrial whaling has contributed to the climate change. According to Ross (2011), the sperm whale through their role in the oceanic link food chain, tend to reduce global warming.

It is man who has caused the climate change but man cannot do anything about it. How soon is man to reforest the Sahara? When is man going to replenish the oceans with the sperm whales so that they can adequately play their role in global cooling?

But the signs shown by root and tuber crops particularly yam, that they thrive well in our present and unpredictable weather, are indications that if they are developed, Ghana would be able to produce enough food to support our growing population if the climate changes or not.

From the history of Africa’s agriculture, such change would not be the first in Africa. Since it has been reported that in the early century of the Christian era, root and tuber crops were introduced into Africa after cereals (Bohannan, 1964). It could be that, the climate change as we are experiencing now probably occurred during that era and there was the need for crops which could thrive by then.

According to Grigg (1964) our ancestors practiced vegeculture under shifting cultivation in West Africa. Thus, our ancestors were growing crops that were vegetatively propagated such as yam, taro, sweet potato and plantain.

Our experiencing climate change now confirms that history repeats itself. Like our ancestors, the time has come for the government to shift its policy from seed agriculture to vegeculture by establishing Root and Tuber Crop Board to ensure the development and production of root and tuber crops to feed the growing population during this period of unpredictable weather condition. At the ninth symposium of the International Society for Tropical Root Crops, which was held in Accra in 1991, Root and Tuber crops were described as insurance crops which survive very arduous tropical conditions and in addition have the potential for use as a source of cheap feed for the development of the livestock industry.

If this observation was made when the prevailing weather conditions at that time was relatively favourable for grain production, and now that the weather is changing to favour root and tuber crop production, the attention of Government is being sought for a policy on the development of these crops.

The Board for Root and Tuber Crops, if set up, should have Research, Extension, Marketing and Processing units. To save the Root and Tuber industry, particularly the yam industry, the board should first set up Extension and Marketing units. The extension unit should start to teach or train farmers and yam sellers the proper handling of yam tubers at harvest, in storage and in transit to eliminate tuber soft rot experienced by both sellers and consumers. The Crop Policy a special unit of Extension should be taught how yam tubers should be properly transported so that they can arrest drivers transport so that, they can arrest drivers transporting yam under an unhealthy unhygienic condition. Thus, the Crop Policy would be contributing to the reduction in post-harvest loses in yam. Marketing unit should set up marketing centers with the proper storage facilities and transport systems.

Farmer Losses
Presently, even though yam has been available almost throughout the year, farmers are not gaining because they lack proper storage facilities for their produce which they can sell when the market is good. Yam farmers are losing now because they are forced to sell within a short period after harvest to reduce post-harvest losses because they generally lack adequate storage facilities for the high yam yield. Currently, yam sellers are taking undue advantage of the yam farmers by offering low prices which yam farmers have to accept in order to pay their debts and survive.

Yam Sellers Gain
In spite of the poor handling of yam tuber after harvest, in transit and in storage, yam sellers make their profit because of the high prices at which they are able to sell at urban markets, otherwise they would not stay in business even though they are aware that consumers are not buying as many tubers as they used to buy previously.

With the Board establishing a good distribution system and guaranteed prices, both the yam farmer and the consumer stand to gain. Yam sellers could go to the yam centres set up by the Board to buy and sell to consumers though they might not make as much profit as they do when they buy directly from yam farmers, they would be experiencing minimal losses through soft rot.

The board should ensure that for one to qualify as a yam seller, he or she must have the appropriate facilities for the storage and display of yam tubers for sale. Thus, helping to reduce post -harvest losses, as a food security measure, after yam sellers have made their purchases from the warehouse of the Board.

Future National Food Security
For the expansion and sustainability of the Root and Tuber Crop Industry, the Research Unit should study and develop the various Root and Tuber Crops adopted to the various agro-ecological zones of Ghana. Seed gardens of all type of root and tuber crops should be established in specific areas of Ghana where a particular type of roots and tuber crop is well adapted and most preferred by the people in that area. The policy of planting valley-bottoms with rice should be replaced with that of taro (ntwibu, kooko) a natural valley-bottoms crop which has now virtually disappeared from the market.

The Board has to set up processing units in major Root and Tuber Crop growing areas to process excess produce into chips, slices and flour for livestock and industrial uses. Roots and Tubers are very perishable and processing would adequately help to prolong their shelf-lives and considerably reduce post-harvest losses in Ghana.

Studies have shown that 15-20% of cassava flour could be added to wheat flour to make very acceptable bread, thus reducing our total dependence on wheat and thus saving foreign exchange.

The attention being drawn to the need for a policy for the development and production of Root and Tuber Crops in Ghana as food security crops is a timely warning. The climate change is true. It is irreversible but Root and Tuber crops have the potential for Ghana to overcome any adverse effect of climate change now and for the future.

God bless our homeland Ghana