Resource-poor farmers who were introduced to dry season cowpea production technology in the fadama areas of Radi and Adrawa, two villages near Maradi, Niger Republic have expressed delight at the technology, which has great potentials to improve their livelihoods.
After harvest, the farmers sold their cowpea seeds at the rate of 1000 CFA per kg (more than US$ 2/kg), as against 550CFA normal cost of cowpea grains during the season of plenty. The farmers also made a lot of money from sales of cowpea fodder, often in high dem and at the peak of the dry season in the entire Sahel region.
According to Dr Hakeem Ajeigbe, Project Coordinator, Gatsby-funded Crop–Livestock Project, in collaboration with Institut de la Recherche Agronomique du Niger (INRAN), the short duration, high yielding, and disease-resistant dry season cowpea production technique was introduced to the farmers as an innovation in their cowpea/vegetable production systems. “This was aimed at facilitating seed production to be used by the project in the main wet season,” he said.
Before now, farmers in the two villages used to plant vegetables under irrigation during October/November and harvest in January/February, leaving the l and to fallow until the wet season.
When the improved dry season short duration, high grain, and fodder yielding cowpeas experiment was introduced in February, 12 farmers, six each from Radi and Adrawa were involved in the experiment. They were given 2 kg each of two cowpea varieties for planting at the peak of the dry season. The cowpea lines: IT90K-372-1-2, IT97K-499-38, IT89KD-374-57, and IT97K-499-35 performed best in the 2006 wet season demonstrations. Harvesting started on 12 May and the estimated grain yield ranged from 860 kg to 1300 kg/ha. The traditional cowpea varieties cannot be planted in February because they are photosensitive and may flower little during the longer day length.
With 586 000 tonnes of dry cowpea grain produced annually, Niger Republic is the second largest world cowpea-producing country after Nigeria (over 2 million tonnes). Its major cowpea production period is the short raining season (June–September). In most cases, farmers contend with poor quality seeds leading to low yields. The Gatsby Crop–Livestock Project embarked on farmer-participatory-evaluation of cowpea varieties and cowpea–cereal cropping systems in Niger in 2006 with over 160 farmers.
Out of this number however, only those from the two villages of Radi and Adrawa have access to irrigation to effectively participate in the dry season cowpea production in relay to their traditional vegetable cropping systems in the fadamas. With the double yield of grains and fodder, many more farmers have registered their intension to participate in the experiment next season.
“We are very happy and thankful to IITA and INRAN, for introducing this new idea to us,” said one of the lead farmers, who confessed that many of his colleagues have been trouping to him to buy seeds of the new varieties in preparation for next season demonstrations.
For details contact:
Taye Babaleye Public Relations Manager
Dr Hakeem Ajeigbe Gatsby Crop-Livestock Project
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