Ziyanm pa ka bout en Gwadloup - never-ending yams in Guadeloupe. Agrobiodiversity use for labour-intensive and sustainable production of graded yam with the “gutter-type tuber-support-container

Yam (Dioscorea spp) is an annual tuber crop which is an important food crops in intertropical diets. Its area of cultivation varies from Japan, Western Africa, to the Caribbean with a wide diversity of cropping systems and cultivars. Among them, the yam cropping system with the “gutter-type tuber-support-container” in Japan allows for a sustainable increase of the graded tuber production. The main objective of this preliminary study is to test the adaptation of this yam cropping system under our Caribbean conditions and to select cultivars adapted to this system. The experiment was set in 2015 on the INRA experimental station in Duclos where 7 cultivars of D. alata were planted in gutters with a high density. The use of the “gutter-type tuber-support-container” coupled to the use of compost and paper mulch can intensify in a sustainable way yam-based cropping systems while avoiding the use of chemicals (mineral fertilizers, herbicides...). First results are promising, especially for 2 cultivars from Vanuatu, called Wanorak and Nepelev, which show very good yields (50t.ha-1) and grade (1 meter length for 1.4 kg in average per tuber). This type of cropping system could represent a sustainable alternative for local communities for instance. We still need to validate these results and to realize a technical-economical analysis of the performance of such system