The Centre for Innovation Entrepreneurship and Rural Development, Valley View University has offered 9- day training on farmer-friendly pre and post technologies that will help yam farmers overcome constraints such as low productivity and quality.

The training which was funded by the Skills Development Fund (SDF) was held for 67 women and men yam farmers of Nkamom Kuo Farmers Association at Tromeso, near Wenchi in the Bono region in February 2020.

The lead trainer of the program who is the director of CIERD  Eric Takyi Atakora explained that the objective of the training was to provide the farmers with the skills to produce high-quality seed yam using the minisett technology and also to introduce them to on-farm technologies that will improve yam production for local and export. Farmers were therefore provided with  training on selecting and cutting of seed yam into setts, preparation and pre-sprouting of setts, and good agronomic practices (GAP)   for minisett  yam production

The chairperson of the farmers’ group, Emilia Terekumwin   pointed out that the training has come on time as all farmers are currently waiting to start an new season of production. According to her, the training was very practical and the technologies were very easy to adopt. She was very hopeful that the training will help them drastically reduce the cost of production which will eventually translate into increased income. She also believed that the training has placed their group in better position to sell high quality yam to their customers next season. She very grateful to SDF for providing the funds and VVU for providing the training