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

Nigeria and Niger each account for about 40% of global area cultivated (about 4 million hectares each)
while Burkina Faso accounts for 7% (0.7 million ha). As such, these three countries account for the bulk
of area cultivated in West Africa and globally.
100
Million hectares
80
60
40
20
0
70-79 80-89 90-99 00-09
Beans, dry
Cow peas, dry
Soybeans
Chick peas
Groundnuts, with shell
Source: Authors using FAO data
Figure 5-2: Global trends in area under major legumes, 1970-2009
Relative to the other regions, the West African region has also seen appreciable changes in the area
planted to cowpea in the last four decades. With an increase of 5 million hectares in area planted
to cowpea, the West African region registered the highest area growth in the world. It is distantly
followed by the East African region where areas increased by 0.3 million. With area increase of 3
million hectares, Niger’s area expansion dwarfed not only the other West African major world cowpea
producers (Nigeria and Burkina Faso), it was also larger than total area increases in other individual
countries and continents.
Nigeria and Burkina Faso saw area increases of 1.2 million ha and 0.4 million ha, respectively, and
together with Niger made the West African the region where cowpea area expansion was the greatest.
Cowpea area expansion in Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Niger may be attributed to the need for more
production to meet the growing regional demand fuelled by growing incomes and population especially
in Nigeria and partly Ghana, in the absence of real changes in technical progress and productivity.
Yield
World cowpea yields have generally been low compared to potential yields and below 1 MT per
hectare although there has been an increase from around 0.3 MT per hectare in the 1970s to about
0.45 MT per hectare in the 2000s (see Figure 5-1 and 5-3). However, wide disparities exist across
continents and sub-regions with yields ranging from 0.4 MT in West Africa to 3 MT per hectare in
Europe in the 2000s. In the last 4 decades, the yields in West Africa have mostly been below those in
other parts of globe. Because West Africa accounts for about 90% of global area cultivated, average
global yields reflect its relatively low yield. The highest yield in Africa is observed in North Africa at .9
tonnes/ha. North America (the United States in particular) has a yield of 1.5 tonnes/ha. Although West
Africa dominates in terms of area cultivated, it clearly lags behind in terms of productivity. In Asia the
yield is also higher than that of West Africa at 1.5 tonnes/ha. Although Europe, North America and Asia
have higher yields, they account for less than 2% of global area cultivated.
Progress of Phase 1
83