The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Thursday flagged off the Nigeria Yam Export.
Speaking at the event, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh stressed the need for Nigeria to begin to earn more foreign exchange by exporting yam.
He pointed out export as one of the ways Nigeria can prevent food wastage, lamenting the country’s poor preservation capacity.
“There is really no shortage, new yams will be here in two weeks. The old stock is still there everywhere and people in the market are getting worried that new yams will come and nobody will touch the old ones.
“We actually over produce food here (in Nigeria), 30% to 40% of some of the food we produce is wasted because of poor preservation capacity but this will not cause any hardship,” he assured Nigerians.