English - McKnight Foundation Collaborative Crop Research Program

McKnight Foundation Collaborative Crops Research Project No: 06-741
Development and promotion of Alectra resistant cowpea cultivars for
smallholder farmers in Malawi and Tanzania
With regard to cowpea leaves, it was observed that the leaves are consumed by almost all
in the two communities surveyed. The young leaves are the ones normally picked,
usually the first three or four from the cowpea plant. While some chop the leaves into
small pieces before cooking, others boil the whole leaves. The leaves seem to have a big
contribution with regard to calcium, iron and zinc. According to Schippers (1997)
African Indigenous Vegetables (AIVs) play a highly significant role in food security of
the under-privileged in both urban and rural settings. AIVs have traditionally taken an
important role in African diets, being used both as medicine and as a vegetable. Many of
these crops are highly nutritious, easy and cheap to grow.
Results indicate that, there was twice as much calcium in leaves than in cowpea grains
and almost 40 times as much iron. Similar results were observed by Weinberger et al.
(2004) where indigenous vegetables showed high mineral levels. Since the iron and zinc
levels in cowpea leaves have shown to be significantly higher than the levels in cowpea
grains, creating more awareness and encouraging the utilization of cowpea leaves will
contribute to alleviating micronutrient deficiencies from cheap sources especially in
resource-poor families. However, it is also important to note that, vegetables that are
common in a particular locality do not necessarily have values of iron contents that are
comparable. For example, in a study by Weinberger et al. (2004) it was reported that
cowpea leaves were identified and collected from four districts in Tanzania, their values
were quite different varying from 179.0 mg in Kongwa, 66.0 mg in Singida, 77.5 mg in
Muheza and 187.0 mg in Arumeru, per kg of edible portion. This is evident that the
amount of minerals found in these vegetables does differ not only according to type of
vegetable but also according to the place, location or district where they were obtained.
This shows that the soil mineral content might have an influence in mineral uptake of the
plants. This aspect can be further investigated.
Adequacy of cowpea consumed in households
As revealed in the results, the daily per capita consumption for the majority of the
households surveyed ranged from 41 to 200 grams of cowpea, which means using the
Atwater factors (4 kcal/g carbohydrates, 4 kcal/g protein and 4 kcal/g fats) an individual
obtained about 135 to 658 kcal per day. Considering that a normal adult requires about a
supply of 2500 kcal per day to perform moderate activities, the other amount of food
eaten in conjunction with cowpeas such as rice or maize flour cannot fill the remaining
gap. This shows that the amount of cowpeas consumed by most households does not
satisfy daily requirements as the quantity eaten is inadequate. In the case of the developed
varieties, which are higher yielding and resistant to Alectra, they will probably be
accepted by the communities and the amount per capita of cowpeas consumed should
increase provided they continue to cultivate the same area of land.