VERIFICATION: Is Nigeria The Largest Producer Of Yam In The World?

A news report by Daily Trust claims the 200,000 capacity yam facility at the Zaki Biam International Market in Benue State is the largest in the world.

A news report on June 9, tweeted by Daily Trust, caught the attention of many with the headline “Osinbajo commissions biggest yam market in the world”.

The paper made this claim while reporting Vice President Yemi Osibanjo’s commissioning of the yam market in Benue.

The report also said the market accounts for about 70 per cent of the yams cultivated in the country with over 200 trucks loading two million tubers of yams weekly.

Verification
Dubawa conducted a keyword search which showed several reports with the mention of Nigeria as the largest producer of yam in the world.

Also data by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) name Nigeria as the major producer of yam.

Our analysis of states producing yam in the country in relation to global yam production, threw up Benue State as the largest yam producing state.

In Benue, the biggest yam market is the Zaki Biam market, a market consistently identified as Nigeria’s largest yam market. A YouTube video by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) showing a documentary titled “Zakibiam Market: The heart of Yam in Nigeria” corroborated this claim.

Zaki Biam yam market is in Ukum Local Government Area of Benue State, which is known as the Food Basket of the Nation.

Nigeria Yam production

The Food and Agricultural Organisation in a report on root and tuber crop production said the world production of yam was estimated at 28.1 million tons in 1993 and that 96% of this came from West Africa; the main producers being Nigeria with 71% of world production; Côte d’Ivoire 8.1%; Benin 4.3% and Ghana 3.5%.

A report by the National Bureau of Statistics stated that Nigeria is the largest producer of yam as it contributes two-thirds of global yam production yearly.