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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Cowpea, Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp, is among the most important grain
legumes in Africa. Its nutritional value and biological nitrogen fixation (BNF)
potential coupled with a high plasticity to environmental conditions places this
legume in a unique position in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in the context of food and
nutritional security. However, cowpea yield and BNF contribution to agricultural
systems in this sub-continent is far behind the average global values. The inability
to run effective breeding programs to timely generate and deliver high yielding,
nutritious and climate smart cowpea varieties, coupled with poor crop husbandry
practices has been in the forefront of the current situation. In this chapter, the main
constrains and opportunities to establish and run successful and effective cowpea
production and breading programs in SSA are discussed. The discussion is built
around the argument that SSA can benefit from its rich collection of landraces, as
well as from high-throughput methodologies to assist the screening and the development
of adapted, high yielding and nutritious varieties
Description
Chapter
Keywords
cowpea breeding food security Africa
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Publisher
IntechOpen