Improved Varieties for Expanding Cowpea Cultivation in South Africa.

Even though cowpea originated in South Africa, it has remained a minor crop there primarily grown by small farmers. The large commercial farmers prefer to grow maize and soybean even in those areas where rainfall is low and erratic. Some of the farmers suffer great losses and some use protective irrigation at a very high cost. Therefore, a high value crop like cowpea with inherent drought tolerance and low water and fertilizer requirement is being promoted particularly in low and erratic rainfall areas with less fertile soils. However, the choice of improved cowpea varieties is limited because currently there is no sustained cowpea improvement program in South Africa. In order to develop well adapted and high yielding cowpea varieties for South Africa, a collaborative cowpea improvement program was initiated in 2012 by the Texas A&M University and the University of Limpopo using the facilities at Ukulima Farm under the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. In the first phase of the program, a total of 93 cowpea varieties introduced from the Texas A&M University and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) along with available varieties from South Africa were tested in the 2012-13 crop season and the promising varieties were retested in 2013-14 and 2014-15 crop seasons. Based on the combined results of the three crop seasons, 8 varieties have been selected with high yield potential and combined resistance to major diseases like bacterial blight and viruses and insects like aphids. These varieties mature between 60-75 days and yield over 2 tons grain and 2 tons fodder ha^-1. Seeds of these varieties are being multiplied for large scale demonstrations.