English - McKnight Foundation Collaborative Crop Research Program

McKnight Foundation Collaborative Crops Research Project No: 06‐741
Team Report
Development and promotion of Alectra resistant cowpea cultivars for
smallholder farmers in Malawi and Tanzania
Project leader: Dr AM Mbwaga, ARI Uyole, Box 400 Mbeya, Tanzania. Email: ambwaga@yahoo.co.uk
Team report for 2008 ‐ 2009
Team activities
Team members from Malawi and Tanzania had a number of opportunities to meet during the year.
These included the CoP2 meeting in Maputo, Mozambique in October 2008. This event allowed
representatives from each country to discuss progress and were followed up with a visit by the project
leader Dr Mbwaga accompanied by Dr Mligo, legume breeder, Dr Charlie Riches (CoP- liaison officer) to
Lilongwe in March 2009 and met by the Malawian project team that was composed of Dr Vernon
Kabambe country project leader, Mosses Mamiliro (breeder), and James Bokosi (breeder). The team
visited several project sites, which included Lilongwe district in Ngwangwa Extension Planning Area
(EPA), Kasungu district in Lisasi EPA, Zomba district in Mpokwa EPA and Balaka district in Rividivi
EPA where farmer groups are undertaking on‐farm trials with the project. The wrap up discussions at
Bunda College, University of Malawi came up with the following observations/recommendations; -
released varieties showed better yields than test lines, early maturing varieties save as source of food in
hunger periods, seed system for cowpea is very poor, more cowpea seed should be sent to Balaka and
Kasungu districts as there was high demand for seed of the improved cowpea varieties and lastly farmers
in Rivirivi were recommended to form farmer research groups for better access by researchers and
extension staff as compared to individual isolated farmers
Representatives of project partner institutions travelled together to assess progress with project
activities in Tanzania starting on 27 th April, 2009 in Iringa and ending on 30th April at Ilonga Agricultural
Research Institute, Kilosa in Tanzania. Evaluation team members were: Joseph Mligo (Breeder, ARI
Ilonga Kilosa Tanzania); Vernon Kabambe (co‐ordinator for Malawi, Bunda College Malawi); James
Bokosi (Breeder, Bunda College of Malawi), Boukar Ousmane (cowpea breeder IITA Kano Nigeria) and
Ambonesigwe Mbwaga (Project leader, ARI Uyole Mbeya Tanzania). The team was joined by Extension
staff working with the project and other staff members at various sites in each district of Tanzania. From
the evaluation it was noted that drought (rainfall, poor distribution and low amounts) has been an
overriding problem this season. The team commended the collaboration the project is undertaking along
with the tropical legumes II project of IITA. It was recommended to incorporate both traits (Alectra
resistance and Drought tolerance) in the breeding programme. An analysis of medium term climatic data
(20-25 years) would be important to determine the frequency of rainfall events (e.g. start dates, dry spells
and rainfall amounts). This can help to determine the important drought traits in plants (e.g. earliness or
resilience). The good production practices should be incorporated in the screening of the varieties against
Alectra. Hence, there is a need to expose the farmer groups involved in the project to all these production
practices.
The experiences observed from cowpea/Alectra and TL II projects indicate that the overriding preference
trait by farmers is seed size; large seeded are more liked than small seeded types.
The backcrossing programme at ARI Ilonga will continue to backcross 6 by October 2010, while at
Bunda College will be at back cross 4. There will be an urgent need to request for an extension of the
project as the intended cowpea materials will have not reached the farmers at the end of the funding year
2010.