The Federal Government of Nigeria
has approved registration and release of a new Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) Cowpea
variety for commercialization.
The approval was granted by the
National Committee on Naming, Registration and Release of Crop Varieties,
chaired by Mr. Oladosu Awoyemi, at its 28th meeting which was held in Ibadan on
December 12, 2019.
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The new cowpea variety, SAMPEA 20-T,
was developed by scientists at the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR),
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in collaboration with various partners under
coordination of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF).
PBR Cowpea was earlier in the year
granted environmental release approval by the National Biosafety Management
Agency (NBMA), which confirmed the product was safe for human, livestock and
the environment and paved the way for submission to the National Variety Release
Committee for consideration and registration as a commercial crop in Nigeria.
The newly approved SAMPEA 20-T has
been bred for resistance to Maruca vitrata, a lepidoptreran insect pest that
causes up to 90 percent yield loss in severe infestation cases.
This new variety is early maturing
(70 – 75 days) with semi erect growth habit and photoperiod insensitive and has
medium large white seeds. It is also resistant to Striga and Alectra, two
notorious parasitic weeds.
The decision to release the variety
means that farmers will have access to the seed that will help them
significantly reduce the number of sprays they currently apply to their crop
from 6 to 7 times to only 2 per cropping season and as a result realise better
yield in quantity and quality. It will also contribute to addressing the
national cowpea demand deficit of about 500,000 tonnes and also improve the
national productivity average of 350kg/hectare.
During the Multilocational Advanced
Yield Trials conducted across Nigeria’s agro-ecologies, researchers found
SAMPEA 20-T to have high stable grain yield across the test locations. The
minimum observed grain yield increase over the conventional cowpea varieties
was 20 percent and the maximum was over 200 percent. The
variety can yield up to 2.9 tons of beans per hectare, and over 3.0 tons of
fodder per hectare.
Prof. Mohammed Ishiyaku, the
Principal Investigator for the project and Executive Director, Institute for
Agricultural Research, Zaria said both the on-station and on-farm trials demonstrated
the superiority of SAMPEA 20-T relative to local, recently released cowpea
varieties and improved breeding lines tested. ‘SAMPEA 20-T is high yielding,
early maturing and resistant to Striga and Alectra, which are major constraint
to cowpea production in most producing areas in Nigeria and other dry savanna
regions,’ said Prof Ishiyaku.
‘The protein and nutrients content
of variety ‘SAMPEA 20-T is the same as that of other conventional varieties
meaning that the Bt gene that was introduced into the variety has no negative
influence on the nutritional composition of both grain and folder,’ added Prof.
Ishiyaku, saying that the newly released variety does not differ in any way
from already existing cowpeas (beans) other than the improvements made.
Dr Denis Kyetere, Executive Director
AATF, thanked the Federal Government of Nigeria for releasing the new cowpea
variety saying it showed its commitment towards improving the livelihoods
of smallholder farmer. ‘Cowpea farmers have had to endure difficult
farming conditions that required spraying dangerous chemicals on their crop to
make a profit which is risking their lives,” Said Dr Kyetere.
“We at AATF express our joy with
Nigeria as it takes the lead in the deployment of necessary technologies that
show promise of solving the challenges which farmers encounter on a daily
basis,’ added Dr. Kyetere
Dr Issoufou Kollo Abdourhamane, the
AATF PBR Cowpea Manager attributed the successful registration and naming of
SAMPEA 20-T to the hard work and synergy between the various project partners
including researchers at the IAR “Our joint effort of over 10 years addressing
one of the vital challenges faced by cowpea farmers in Africa has paid off.
Cowpea farming will now become attractive even to the younger generation as it
has become less cumbersome with the effective management of Maruca,’ he said.
Prof. Garba Sharubuta, the Executive
Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), the apex
organization supervising all agriculture research in the country welcomed the
release of the new variety saying that cowpea is a major staple and vegetarian
source of dietary protein in Africa. “Its production has been stalled by severe
attack of lepidopteran insect pests in both the field and storage. One of such
notorious pests is the legume pod-borer, (Maruca vitrata). This pest has
singularly contributed to significant cowpea yield reductions on our farmers’
farms.’
Prof. Sharubuta said that ARCN’s
resolve is to make improved technologies available and accessible to farmers to
enhance their yields and income and result in improved livelihoods. ‘One such
economically viable, and environmentally sound solution to the problem of the
legume pod borer is development of cowpea varieties that have inherent
resistance to the lepidopteran pod borers,” Prof. Sharubuta added.
The Acting Director General and
Chief Executive Officer of the National Biotechnology Development Agency
(NABDA), said the release marked a great and memorable day for Nigeria, Africa
and the World at large. ‘We all are marching towards food sufficiency and food
security for Nigeria and all of mankind. Bt Cowpea is certainly a major and
strategic addition.”
SAMPEA 20-T is a product of over a
decade of research efforts by a partnership that brought together Commonwealth
Scientific Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) of Australia for
genetic transformation, IAR, NABDA, ARCN, Danforth Center and Bayer that
provided the Cry1Ab gene to the partnership on humanitarian basis, royalty
free, so that small scale farmers can access it affordably. The project
partnership was coordinated by AATF with sustained funding by USAID.
The Project also received support
from other stakeholders in Nigeria including the National Association of
Cowpea Growers, the National Association of Nigerian Farmers and local seed
companies.