Four Seasons of Learning and Engaging Smallholder Farmers - icrisat

its by 0.2 MT per ha during the same period. These changes in yields in Nigeria may be explained by
the limited adoption of newly released varieties although this has happened only on a small scale.
Although yields in Europe have shown some fluctuation, they have generally been much higher than
those in Nigeria, Niger and other regions of the world. The yields in Asia and North America have
also been higher than those in Nigeria and Niger for many decades. This may be an indication of an
opportunity to increase yields to levels closer to what is obtained on other continents.
7.0
6.0
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
1970
1973
1976
1979
1982
1985
1988
1991
1994
1997
2000
2003
2006
2009
North America Europe Niger Nigeria Asia
Source: Authors using FAO data
Figure 5- 3: Trends in cowpea yields across the world 1970-2009
Production
Figure 5-4 shows that global cowpea production has steadily increased from an average of 1.3 million
MT in the 1970s to about 4.5 million MT in the 2000s representing an annual average production
growth rate of around 4.7%. With a production growth rate of 28.9%, North America saw the highest
growth rate while the Caribbean recorded the lowest growth rate of about 0% with the 2009 production
level being 60% of the 1970 level. West Africa recorded a growth rate of 4.9% while Asia and Europe
recorded 5.9% and 7.9%, respectively. Since the 1970s cowpea production never exceeded 2% of
production of major legumes. Figure 5-4 indicates that soybeans, groundnut and thirdly beans have
been the dominant legumes in terms of production levels. Soybean in particular has experienced very
large increases in production since 1970 with an increase from about 40 million MT to about 220
million MT by 2009.
Of the 4.5 million MT average global production in the 2000s, Africa accounted for 95% (4.3 million
MT). Asia and Europe accounted for 3% and 1%, respectively, while the rest of the world accounted for
about 1%. Although North America has had the highest growth in cowpea production, its production
share was not up to 1% in the 2000s.
Although, Niger had the largest area under cultivation of 4 million hectares in the 2000s compared
to the 3.8 million hectares cultivated in Nigeria, Niger’s production was much lower at just about
770,000 MT compared to the 2.6 million MT of Nigeria. Among the factors that determine cowpea
production at national level in West Africa are the level of technology, cost of input (price/unit) for
cowpea production, prices of alternative crops, agro-ecological adaptations, and government policies
(especially with regard to incentives aimed at promoting cowpea production).
Progress of Phase 1
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