TAAT e-catalog
for
private sector
https://e-catalogs.taat-africa.org/com/technologies/climate-smart-and-market-preferred-yam-varieties
More yield, better quality, stronger resilience!
These varieties yield 20–30 tons per hectare and mature in 7–8 months, enabling quicker turnover and higher profitability. Their resistance to pests and diseases reduces the need for costly pesticides. They are compatible with modern seed yam multiplication technologies such as minisett, vine cutting, and SAH, which enable large-scale seed supply businesses. Their uniform tubers are well-suited for food processors, with strong consumer appeal for poundability, taste, and storability.
This technology is pre-validated.
Open source / open access
Low production output: Traditional yam varieties produce relatively low yields, limiting the volume available for sale.
Long production cycles: Maturity periods of 10–12 months delay turnover and tie up land and capital for longer periods.
Unpredictable supply: Climate stress, pests and diseases can cause fluctuations in production and market supply.
High seed requirements: Reliance on large tubers as planting material can increase the quantity of produce reserved for planting rather than sale.
Inconsistent tuber quality: Irregular shapes and variable quality can reduce acceptance by traders, retailers and processors.
Reduced commercial returns: Low yields, long production cycles and quality constraints can weaken profitability and limit business expansion.
Higher marketable output: Improved varieties increase production to 20–30 tonnes per hectare, creating more produce for sale.
Faster capital turnover: Maturity in 7–8 months allows farmers to harvest earlier and recover their production investments sooner.
More stable production: Tolerance to drought and low soil fertility, combined with resistance to major pests and diseases, helps reduce production risks.
More efficient seed use: Minisett, vine-cutting and SAH multiplication methods create opportunities to produce and sell quality seed yams.
Improved product quality: Uniform tubers with desirable taste, poundability and storability can better meet the requirements of traders and processors.
Greater profitability potential: Higher yields, shorter production cycles and reduced pesticide requirements can improve commercial returns when local production and market conditions are favourable.
Producing improved yam varieties with traits such as drought tolerance, pest resistance, and early maturity significantly enhances yam yields despite environmental challenges. This contributes to food security, poverty reduction, and empowers smallholder farmers, including women and youth. It also supports climate adaptation efforts and promotes sustainable rural livelihoods.
To effectively multiply seed yams,
Early Generation Seeds of these yam varieties are available from the following sources:
Nigeria:
Your customers may include wholesale seed distributors, government programs, NGOs, and development projects. Building strong partnerships with these stakeholders and extension services is key to successful multiplication and market penetration.
Selling improved yam varieties delivers a valuable product while strengthening engagement with farmers and rural communities, enhancing food security, reducing poverty, and empowering women and youth.
To navigate this market, understand seed sources from certified producers in the main yam-producing countries such as Nigeria and Ghana, identify reliable transport and storage solutions, and maintain seed quality.
Your customer base includes local seed retailers, farmer cooperatives, development projects, and small producers. Establishing trust and good relationships with buyers is essential for sustainable sales and impact.
Using improved yam varieties offers a cost-effective and sustainable solution to increase yam yields with greater resilience to drought, pests, diseases, and climate stress. These varieties mature faster (7–8 months), providing earlier and multiple harvests, which enhances food security and incomes.
Key partners for users are seed sellers and extension agents who provide quality planting material and technical advice. Users should estimate potential profits and benefits from adopting these varieties based on yield improvements and input savings.
| Target groups | Positive impacts |
| Youth with low literacy in rural area |
|
| Women smalholder famer with limited land access |
|
| Older farmers with low income in climate vulnerable area |
|
Climate adaptability: Highly adaptable
These improved varieties are bred for resilience to drought, low soil fertility, and temperature stresses, helping sustain yields despite changing climates.
Farmer climate change readiness: Significant improvement
Farmer awareness of climate change effects is growing, supporting adoption of these varieties and practices.
Soil quality: Improves soil health and fertility
These varieties combined with improved management practices (ridging, fertilizer application, mulching) improve nutrient use efficiency, increase soil organic matter, and enhance fertility, reducing degradation common in continuous yam cropping.
Water use: Much less water used
Early maturing and drought-tolerant traits help reduce water demand by shortening field duration and improving water use efficiency.
Biodiversity: Not verified
Scaling Readiness describes how complete a technology's development is and its ability to be scaled. It produces a score that measures a technology's readiness along two axes: the level of maturity of the idea itself, and the level to which the technology has been used so far.
Each axis goes from 0 to 9 where 9 is the “ready-to-scale” status. For each technology profile in the e-catalogs we have documented the scaling readiness status from evidence given by the technology providers. The e-catalogs only showcase technologies for which the scaling readiness score is at least 8 for maturity of the idea and 7 for the level of use.
The graph below represents visually the scaling readiness status for this technology, you can see the label of each level by hovering your mouse cursor on the number.
Read more about scaling readiness ›
Uncontrolled environment: validated
Common use by projects NOT connected to technology provider
| Maturity of the idea | Level of use | |||||||||
| 9 | ||||||||||
| 8 | ||||||||||
| 7 | ||||||||||
| 6 | ||||||||||
| 5 | ||||||||||
| 4 | ||||||||||
| 3 | ||||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||||
| 1 | ||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ||
| Project | Countries | Beneficiaries | Budget (USD) & duration | Key figures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
ESFSP Emergency Support to Food Security Project |
|
|
6.5 million African Development Bank (AfDB) 2022–2024 |
|
|
IsDB Root and Tuber IsDB Root and Tuber Value Chains Development Project |
|
|
550.000 Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) 2021-2026 |
|
Figures in italic are from project plans and may change during implementation.
| Target groups | Positive impacts |
| Youth with low literacy in rural area |
|
| Women smalholder famer with limited land access |
|
| Older farmers with low income in climate vulnerable area |
|
| Target groups | Unintended impacts | Mitigation measures |
| Youth with low literacy in rural area |
|
|
| Women smalholder famer with limited land access |
|
|
| Older farmers with low income in climate vulnerable area |
|
|
| Target groups | Barriers to adoption | Mitigation measures |
| Youth with low literacy in rural area |
|
|
| Women smalholder famer with limited land access |
|
|
| Older farmers with low income in climate vulnerable area |
|
|
| Country | Testing ongoing | Tested | Adopted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benin | –No ongoing testing | Tested | –Not adopted |
| Côte d'Ivoire | –No ongoing testing | Tested | Adopted |
| Ethiopia | Testing ongoing | –Not tested | –Not adopted |
| Ghana | –No ongoing testing | Tested | Adopted |
| Madagascar | Testing ongoing | –Not tested | –Not adopted |
| Nigeria | –No ongoing testing | Tested | Adopted |
| Sierra Leone | –No ongoing testing | Tested | –Not adopted |
| The Democratic Republic of the Congo | Testing ongoing | –Not tested | –Not adopted |
| Uganda | Testing ongoing | –Not tested | –Not adopted |
This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones. Any zones shown in white are not suitable for this technology.
| AEZ | Subtropic - warm | Subtropic - cool | Tropic - warm | Tropic - cool |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arid | – | – | – | – |
| Semiarid | – | – | – | – |
| Subhumid | – | – | – | |
| Humid | – | – | – |
Source: HarvestChoice/IFPRI 2009
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are applicable to this technology.
Improved yam varieties increase yields and income for smallholder farmers, addressing rural poverty and economic vulnerability by providing higher food and market productivity.
These varieties enhance food security by producing more yam food faster (early maturity) with better resistance to pests, diseases, and climate stresses, contributing to sustainable and diversified diets.
Climate-smart breeding traits help farmers adapt to climate change, improve resilience to drought and low soil fertility, and reduce deforestation pressure through sustainable intensification.
Sustainable yam production with improved varieties and integrated soil fertility management reduces land degradation and promotes biodiversity conservation in yam farming landscapes.
1- Source Clean Planting Material
2- Adopt Proper Seed Multiplication Technologies
3- Plant at Recommended Spacing
4- Provide Good Field Management
5- Harvest at the Right Time
6- Storage and Marketing Tips
Last updated on Oct 15, 2026
This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones.
Climate-Smart and Market-Preferred Yam Varieties
https://e-catalogs.taat-africa.org/com/technologies/climate-smart-and-market-preferred-yam-varieties
Last updated on 15 October 2026, printed on Oct 31, 2026
Enquiries e-catalogs@taat.africa
