New technique could make yam growing easier

Paul H. Williams, Gleaner Writer

YAM FARMING and reaping is a back-breaking, labour-intensive occupation, but it can perhaps be made easier, that is, if Linton Neil's method of yam farming is adopted.

This Horizon Park, St Catherine, man, who said he has been around farming all his life, has always been fascinated with vines, and one Christmas morning, in Balaclava, St Elizabeth, he got an epiphany.

"I went down and looked at this yam vine and said, you know what, I am going to revolutionalise the propagation of this thing," he said. From leaves and vines he was going to grow yam. Neil then cut off some yam leaves with little pieces of stems attached to them. He wrapped them in bits of newspaper, put them into a plastic bag, kept them in a cool place, and eventually took them home to St Catherine.

When he told some of his colleagues at the ministry of agriculture of the idea he was immediately dismissed. "They said 'stop talk foolishness', 'a voodoo business', 'that's never been done before', 'rubbish yuh talking'. So I said, 'OK, it's something coming, not going'," he recounted.

Five of the stems that he planted subsequently germinated after 12 weeks. "I wasn't surprised," he said, "I wasn't surprised, I just said 'yes'." And they actually bore yam, one weighing two pounds.

Since then, he has intensified his research of the production of yam by this method, which seems to be very different from the traditional method of growing yam from the head or seed in large plots of land.

With Neil's way, the leaves, attached to a piece of vine, are planted in a small pot of crushed sand. When the roots sprouted, the seedling is removed to a second pot. This is done in a nursery where keen attention is paid to the sustenance of the seedlings, which are eventually transferred to a six-inch pot. Each pot could yield a piece of yam weighing up to three pounds.

Neil said he went to a certain research organisation with his idea, and it sent representatives to look at what he was doing. It seemed, he said, they were impressed with what he was doing, but there was no follow-up. But why would anybody or any entity want to grow yam the Linton Neil way?

The yam can be grown in pots right in a backyard or even on an apartment balcony. It can be mass produced year-round in a small space. The risk of transferring contaminants from yam heads and surrounding soil is significantly less. The yam is smaller and more uniformed in shape, preventing wastage by cutting and paring, and making it more suitable for packing. No treatment with chemicals for exporting is needed, and they are grown for consumption and not replanting.

The leaf/stem method of propagation is not unique to yam; Neil showed The AgroGleaner a pumpkin vine which he produced from the leaf/stem method.

Neil, who studied at Knockcalva Agricultural School in Hanover, has demonstrated his technique at the annual Denbigh Agricultural Show, and is awaiting the result of field trials by some farmers in Trelawny and Manchester. The trials are facilitated by the Caribbean Agricultural Development Institute, which has contracted him to produce 5,000 seedlings.

The mass propagation of St Vincent yam through the leaf/stem method is Neil's vision for the revival of the purple, nutritious tuber, which he said is a "dying breed".