How we plan to export yam this month ―NAQS boss

The Coordinating Director of the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service, (NAQS), has said that the yam due for export must be certified by the Quarantine Service to ensure that the commodity complies with the conditions of the importing country.

Dr. Isegbe who disclosed this to Nigerian Tribune further said that the farms where all the yams will be harvested from should be traceable in case any issue arise from the importing countries.

It will be recalled that the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh had recently inaugurated a Committee for yam export, and it is expected that yams will be exported from Nigeria to other parts of the world by the end of this month.

Dr. Isegbe said the Quarantine Service was carried along in the entire process to issue certificates to the yams for export and do backward integration to let the farmers know the requirements for export.

According to him “the NAQS is playing a very strategic role in this intended yam export, we are the one to do the certification of the yam, once it is produced, we do the certification and we do what is called backward integration to let the farmers know that if your commodity is intended for export to a particular country, this is their requirements.

Explaining the requirements before a yam is exported, Dr. Isegbe said “the yam should be of uniform size, it should not have a growth on the head, it will be cut and waxed with candle to prevent infection, the yam should not have any nematode infestation, the yam should be of uniform specie, put in the carton in a particular way, it should be properly labeled and weighed, and if it is going to a particular country, the import condition for that yam will be stated”.

Furthermore, he said “if the yam is going to be fumigated, the chemical for fumigation will be stated, so we will comply with the request of the importing country to ensure that those things are put in place.

“Yam that have fingers that are too long, too fat or that have rashes on the body, none of them will pass for export, and of course we painstakingly inspect each tuber of yam to ensure that they meet those requirements before we certify them and issue the phytosanitary certification for the export.

He further said that the Quarantine Service should be able to know where the farms the yams due for export is located so that each yam could be traced to a particular farm and a particular farmer.

“As the farmers are preparing their farms, we want to know where the farm is, we want to be able to trace each tuber to the farm, that is one of the conditions, we will able to trace that this tuber in a particular consignment came from a particular farm, if it has any issue in the importing country and they informed us, we will be able to trace the yam to the farmer and the farmer.

“We are already talking so that the exporters will do what they are supposed to do, so that they don’t bring the yam at the point of export and it will be rejected. We do jingles to tell farmers where our offices are for enquirers, we have 5 zonal offices, 56 stations and we are still expanding so that they can come and ask questions”, Dr. Isegbe added.