Yummy cakes from yams

Nakatyaba village, in Buikwe sub-county, Buikwe District is an area known for growing climbing yams.

The sandy loam and silt loam soils in the area make it favourable to grow the root crop.

However, farmers had for long been paid peanuts for their produce given that they were selling them fresh without adding value to them.

This prompted, a local non-government organisation, Youth Association for Rural Development (YARD) to take farmers of yams to this year’s agricultural show in Jinja in July.

In the agricultural show, the 30 farmers under Bwetyaba Twekembe Farmer’s Group, underwent trainings on how to add value to yams.

From the crop, Ms Rose Mukisa, the group’s treasurer, says the farmers were trained on how to make yam cakes and yam porridge.

How to grow Climbing Yams

The yams are planted in rectangular holes using seeds yams. The seed yam is placed on top of soft soil and then covered with a layer of dry grass, which protects them without preventing shoots from growing.

When the plant starts to sprout the shoots are directed towards the trunk of the nearest tree.

The yam vines usually climb up the tree reaching its top before coming down.

The climbing yam takes about a year to mature. When it is mature, all the leaves get dry.

Value addition

Mukisa says she harvests the mature yams, and then cut it into pieces.

The pieces are then washed and dried in a solar drier for about three days. The dry pieces are then milled into yam flour. They sometimes use a local mortar to pound it into flour.

The flour is mixed with baking powder, milk,  sugar and margarine. The dough is then made into cakes.

Mukisa says they sell the cakes to supermarkets and local shops.  A small cake costs Shs1,000.

Challenges

Mukisa says the biggest challenge lies in the high prices of ingredients they use to make cakes.

She also says some customers think the yam cakes are not tasty and are reluctant to buy.