Final version of Tropical Legumes II Project Report for Phase 1 - icrisat

Area
Global trends in area under cowpea production are shown in Figures 5-1 and 5-2. Although cowpea
global area cultivated has had an upward trend since the 1970s, it increased markedly in the 1990s.
From an average of about 4 million in the 1970s and 1980s, the areas increased to 8 million in the 1990s
and further increased to 10 million in the 2000s. From 1970 to 2009, area planted increased by 0.24
million ha per year. While the area planted to cowpea temporarily plummeted towards the closure of
the 1970s perhaps following the 1973/4 oil cartel which may have undermined global cowpea demand
through its negative impact on incomes, areas increased from the 1980s through to 2009 part of which
may be explained by the advances in plant breeding which saw a number of important varieties being
released within the period following the work by IARCs and NARES. Indeed due to work by IITA in
collaboration with IARCs and NARES, reports show that Nigeria, the world’s major cowpea producer,
did experience marked increases in harvested areas and cowpea yields between 1970 and 2009.
Area and Prodution
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
70-79 80-89 90-99 00-09
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
Yield
Area (million ha) Production (million tonnes) Yield
Source: Authors using FAO data
Figure 5- 1: Global trends in cowpea area, yield, and production, 1970-2009
The production differences that exist from one country to another are also attributable to the fact
that recommended varieties vary across countries and also have varying yield potential. For instance,
while the bulk of recommended varieties for Nigerian conditions are early maturing, most varieties
recommended for Niger are medium maturing and have different yield potential when compared with
those recommended for Nigerian drier conditions. Inter-temporal variations/fluctuations in terms of
areas harvested and yield may reflect the effect of time-varying environmental and policy changes
in the major growing countries. Intermittent dry spells and good rainy seasons for example coupled
with changes in pests and disease prevalence over time in West and Central African region may partly
explain such areas fluctuations, though the steady increase in production may be attributable to the
effect of technological progress on productivity.
Figure 5-2 indicates that compared to other major legumes, the area cultivated for cowpea has been low.
However, it increased gradually as observed for most of the other legumes as well. In the 1970s, it had the
lowest area cultivated (4 million ha) with the next in size being chickpea with 10 million ha. However,
the area for chickpea remained close to the 1970s value so that by the 2000s cowpea had become as
large as chickpea in terms of area cultivated. In the 2000s, they both had an area of about 10 million.
The increase in area for soybean has been much higher than that for other legumes. Its area cultivated
increased markedly from about 40 million in the 1970s to about 90 million hectares in the 2000s.
Total area cultivated for cowpea in Africa is 9.7 million hectares. Thus, Africa accounts for 84% of
global area cultivated. The bulk of this is found in West Africa. Thus West Africa is the major region
in terms of area cultivated. Asia accounts for 1.5% of global area (0.2 million ha) while the rest of the
world accounts for about 1%. In West Africa, Niger, Nigeria and Burkina Faso have the largest areas.
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Engaging Smallholder Farmers | Tropical Legumes II Project