While we urgently need to address the inefficiencies in Nigeria’s yam value chain to support the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers and provide more affordable food to the country, it is essential to look beyond food security and apply a food sovereignty lens.
The yam harvest season is upon us.
‘Have you seen the price of poundo yam? I will like eba by force,’ a friend told me a few months ago.
Nigerians are currently going through a tumultuous economic period, with inflation reaching a 17-year high of 20.52 per cent in August 2022. Across various socioeconomic strata, Nigerians are adjusting their consumption, sacrificing some of their wants and prioritizing need in response to the new economic reality. In this gloomy period, where there seems to be no end to the increasing prices of goods and services in sight, the yam harvest season arrived like a beacon of hope, with prices of yam in Lagos decreasing from N2,500 to N800 per large-sized tuber in the past few weeks.
Yam, a crop indigenous to West Africa, is deeply rooted in the socio-cultural fabric of most Nigerian communities...
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