IITA yam breeders trained on Yamcross, a mobile application for data management
From 5 to 9 August, IITA yam breeders were trained on the use of Yamcross, a mobile application for data management in yam breeding. The application manages the activities of seed and tubers in yam breeding programs. The training was held in IITA Ibadan and was facilitated by Margaret Karanja, Research Assistant and Associate at IITA Nairobi.
Aside from helping to automate and enhance data management with activities in yam breeding programs, Yamcross also provides seamless and centralized access to data for analysis and reporting. Yamcross is an integration of three systems; namely, a mobile application installed on mobile phones, Yambase for generating field records, and the Yamcross dashboard for analytics.
The training was designed to meet the capacity building needs of yam breeders. It is also necessary for accurate data management to make breeding more efficient in generating accurate data that can be shared across all the countries of West Africa where AfricaYam collaborates.
Karanja said, “Yamcross is important and beneficial to yam breeders as it will ensure accurate, timely, and efficient data collection; provide seamless data and report access; and enable management analysis and interpretation of results that are crucial at all stages of the crop improvement cycle in yam.”
Seminar participants with training facilitator, Margaret Karanja.
However, she noted that to access data on mobile for Yamcross, users need to register. Participants were taught how to set up user accounts linked to their personal email address.
At the end of the training, Molecular Breeder at IITA Yam Breeding, Paterne Agre, oversaw a brief interview and auto evaluation session to determine how much participants had learnt and how best participants would be able to use Yamcross. He noted that this would ensure that the training is beneficial to the participants and IITA.
