Jun 06 2024
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Nyankpala, Ghana – In a significant move to enhance cowpea cultivation and meet market demands, the cowpea improvement program of the CSIR-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI) and the Cowpea Breeding Unit of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) held the inaugural meeting of the Ghana Cowpea Product Design Team. The meeting, which took place in Nyankpala, gathered 18 participants from various sectors, including breeding, gender/youth representation, agronomy, farming, seed systems, the private sector, the Ministry of Agriculture, processing, food/nutrition science, climate science, pathology, socio-economics, NGOs, and national and regional networks.

The meeting aimed to prioritize and validate cowpea market segments, discuss target product profiles for these segments, and align breeding objectives for new cowpea varieties tailored to the needs of farmers and end users. Dr. Theophilus Kwabla Tengey, the Cowpea Breeding Lead at CSIR-SARI, presented an overview of activities, while Dr. Patrick Obia Ongom and Dr. Ousmane Boukar led discussions.

Four key market segments were identified for Ghana:

  1. Short to medium-duration white cowpea for boiled grain, adapted to Northern Ghana.
  2. Short to medium-duration brown cowpea for boiled grain, adapted to Northern Ghana.
  3. Short to medium-duration white/brown cowpea for homemade flour, adapted to Northern Ghana.
  4. Medium-duration white/brown cowpea for dual purposes (grain and fodder), adapted to Northern Ghana.

For each market segment, the team predicted the hectares of land covered, the percentage of land cultivated, and identified the top six important traits, the current dominant variety, its market share, strengths, and weaknesses.

For the boiled grain cowpea market segments, the six most important traits were resistance to insect pests (pod-sucking bugs, aphids, and maruca), striga, diseases (charcoal rot), large seed size, high grain yield, and short cooking time. Traits for cowpeas intended for homemade flour included ease of dehulling, small seed size, and good functional characteristics. The dual-purpose cowpea segment emphasized high grain and fodder yield, stay-green characteristics, and resistance to insect pests, striga, and diseases.

This meeting marks a significant step forward in the collaborative efforts to improve cowpea varieties in Ghana, ensuring they meet the specific needs of different cowpea market segments. The Cowpea Product Design Team plans to convene annually to assess breeders’ progress and refine product profiles based on current consumer needs.

IITA and CIMMYT are acknowledged for facilitating this activity under the Accelerated Varietal Improvement and Seed Delivery of Legumes and Dryland Cereals in Africa (AVISA) transition project.

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