Dr. John S.Y. Eleblu of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University of Ghana and his collaborator Alison Bentley of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), United Kingdom have won the Cambridge-Africa Alborada Research grant of £20,000 for research on “upscaling cowpea improvement for food security in Ghana”. The start date of the project is 01/04/2019 and it ends on 01/04/2020.
Dr. John S.Y. Eleblu (left) and Dr. Alison Bentley (right)
Throughout sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is an important multi-functional legume crop consumed as grain (seed crop), vegetable (leaf crop) and feed for livestock (fodder crop). As a hunger-season crop, harvested before staple cereal crops, it is an important component of smallholder food security and over 90% of cowpea production occurs in the semi-arid regions of Africa (FAOSTAT, 2014).
Although cowpea is central to livelihoods and food security in SSA its production and productivity are constrained, particularly in smallholdings by a wide variety of biotic and abiotic stresses. Typically grown in marginal environments, yield and crop quality are compromised due to low soil fertility and erratic rainfall. Cowpea is also susceptible to a wide range of biotic stresses including bacterial, fungal, and viral diseases and is attacked by many insect pests.
In the proposed project, we will upscale our recently established cowpea tissue culture capabilities at NIAB and optimize the protocols for both tissue culture and transformation. These protocols will be transferred to WACCI during a collaborative workshop. We will also address the current bottleneck of lack of facilities for producing clean plants in the field and explore the potential for novel non-woven fabric tents to provide a versatile and flexible solution. Working with PBS International (https://www.pbsinternational.com) the leading supplier of innovative pollination material will pave the way for future Research and Development in Ghana to optimize solutions available to support farmer access to clean planting material with broad application beyond cowpea.
The Cambridge-Africa Programme Committee has been able to create the Cambridge-Africa Alborada Research Fund following a generous donation from the Alborada Trust which is supporting this project.