Research centre for indigenous yams launched

by Gamini WARUSHAMANA

A research and development centre for indigenous yam varieties was opened last week in Attapitiya, Aranayake. The project was launched by the Community Development Centre (CDC), a partner organisation of the Friends of Lanka, a local NGO operating in the Kegalle District with the financial support from UNDP.

The research and development centre

The objective of the project is to disseminate knowledge in indigenous yam varieties and popularise them among the people as food items with high nutritional value.

The chairman of the CDC Damayanthi Godamulla said that this research and development centre is the third stage of the project. We started this project in 2001 with several objectives. We have recognised several social and environment issues in the Aranayake divisional secretariat division while we were working here since 1996. Environment issues such as soil erosion, social issues faced by the women in poor families were among them.

In the meantime while we were working with the community we found that the senior generation of the society had knowledge about some edible yam varieties with high nutritional and medicinal value. They were under threat of extinction due to lack of knowledge about their value and non availability of a market for the farmers to cultivate them as a productive crop.

We collected 36 yam species and mobilised 100 women in 10 villages to cultivate them.

They have successfully cultivated and conserved those species that were under threat of extinction during the first stage of the project. The Global Environment Facility Small Grant Program of the UNDP financially supported this project, she said.

During the second stage of the project we conserved a total of 61 yam varieties and women mobilisation expanded while the cultivation of yam was scaled up. Simultaneously we paid attention to popularise yam as a food item and make different value added food products such as sweets and chips. Also the substitutability of yam flour to wheat flour in making some food items was tested and results were encouraging. We introduced a marketing program to ensure reasonable prices for their harvest. At this stage the farmer families, especially women were able to increase their income.

By establishing this R and D centre we expect to share our experience, knowledge and distribute yam varieties to other districts and increase the income of farmers. Today they sell yam as well as seedlings and earn a good income, Godamulla said.

The R and D centre and the model farm is located on a picturesque location on the Bank of the Maoya. The centre consists of a conference hall, accommodation facilities, office space, a drier and yam processing facilities.

Yams for sale

The country coordinator of the UNDP Small Grant Program Sherine Samarasooriya said that the CDC has expressed that it can go forward without outside financial support. This is very important because most of the organisations seek continuous financial support.

This project has many important aspects and it provides nutrition, food security, conservation of traditional knowledge and contributes to poverty reduction.

She said that potato cultivation in Nuwara Eliya and Welimada areas has created a huge environment disaster and it is high time to introduce alternatives for these regions.

But it is difficult to reverse some processes that we have used and this kind of programs will help to provide alternatives to some foreign foods we have used.

These yam varieties that can survive even in adverse environment conditions, such as droughts or floods, ensure food security in this era where climate changes have created a lot of problems. This project has a long way ahead, Samarasooriya said.

The project has gained international acclaim and has secured the Equator Prize for the best bio diversity conservation project in 2009. Last month CDC represented the United Nations bio diversity summit held in Nagoya, Japan and CDC was the only organisation invited from Sri Lanka to this summit.