English - McKnight Foundation Collaborative Crop Research Program

McKnight Foundation Collaborative Crops Research Project No: 06-741
Introduction:
The rainfall amount and distribution during the 2008/09 season was poor in most dry areas of Tanzania.
Also there was an outbreak of cut warms at seedling stage especially in Singida, where farmers had to
re-plant legumes more than twice until they ran out of seed. This has led to poor harvest of the crop. The
two outputs 1.1 and 1.2 mentioned below were covered in year one and year 2.
Output 1.1: Producer and consumer preferences for traits in cowpea identified
This out put has been completed in year two
Output 1.2: Capacity of cowpea farmers, especially women enhanced
Three new more farmer groups were formed this season, one from each district of Singida, Dodoma and
Iringa. These are from Nduu village (21 members) in Singida, Mpunguzi (10 members) in Dodoma and
Ilambilole (8 members) in Iringa. Some preliminary training has been undertaken, mainly group
formation, seed production and processing and utilization of cowpea.
Output1.3.0: Cowpea lines resistant to A. vogelii identified
1.3.1: To assemble cowpea germplasm:
The collection of cowpea germplasm was conducted in year one, where cowpea accessions were
obtained from IITA, Bihawana farmers Training Centre, National Pant Genetic Resource Centre and
Ilonga Agricultural Research Station. These were evaluated for adaptability and Alectra resistance
starting in the same year one.
1.3.2 On-station screening of cowpea cultivars for Alectra resistance
Introduction: Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is a crop of major importance to the nutrition of poor rural
households in the drier and sub-humid regions of Eastern and Southern Africa, where diets tend to be
overly reliant on starchy foods such as millet, sorghum, maize and cassava. Cowpea grain is an
inexpensive, high quality source of protein and its vitamin-rich leaves are eaten as spinach. Women
particularly value cowpeas, which help them to bridge the "hunger months" prior to the main cereal
harvest, also it adds cash to the household after selling the grain, dried leaves and cookies like bagia
(buns). Farmers grow local long duration cowpea cultivars, which produce low yield due to a number of
reasons including Alectra infestation. In odder to improve the productivity of cowpeas in these areas,
there was a need to introduce cowpea cultivars, which are high yielding, resistant to pests including
Alectra and preferred by consumers both for market and for household use. The introduction of
accessions was to asses for their resistance to Alectra. This activity started by this project in 2006/2007
growing season and the promising lines were tested to more Alectra infested sites. These sites were
Ismani in Iringa region; Bihawana Farmer Training Centre and Hombolo Research station both in
Dodoma. For the second season 2007/2008 the cowpea lines were again planted at the same sites of
Ismani, Bihawana FC and Hombolo to confirm their performance in terms of Alectra resistance and
yield. Promising lines for Alectra resistance and yield were identified. In the third season 2008/2009, the
promising lines were planted again at these Alectra hot spots for further confirmation of resistance to
Alectra and for yield performance.
Material and methods: The trial was planted at three on station locations which included Ismani,
Bihawana Training Centre and Hombolo research station. Cowpea lines planted were those from last
season showing promising Alectra resistance and farmers had already selected some of them as the best
lines. These lines included IT99K-21-7-2-2-1, IT99K-573-1, IT97K-818-35, IT89KD-288, TZA 263,
IT97K-819-118, IT97K-499-8, IT97K-499-38, IT00K-1207, B301 and VULI-2, FAHARI as local
checks. The materials were planted at a plot size of 3x4m, 4 rows per plot and replicated four times.
Data recorded were plant stand count at harvest, Alectra count per plot and yield per plot (g/plot). Yield
data was computed to yield in kg per ha.
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2009