The food yams can now be considered co be no more difficult to improve than many other plants. Their system of building up and accumulating useful reserves, their system of ecological adaptation as well as (heir system of genetic variations offers a sufficient range of diversity to be within the reach of selection pressures. Their sexual behaviour is progressively reset among the important species where it was deficient. Evolutive evidence and the sapogenine species experience give wide prospects for attempts of intraspecific introgression. Last but not least, through in vitro technology, new horizons are rising for the modern venture of food yam improvement