Achievements

Advances in agricultural science and technology present opportunities to overcome constraints to achieving adequate nutrition for good health, increasing agricultural productivity for household economic and food security, and for utilizing natural resources in a more sustainable manner.

Beginning in 1980, the Bean/Cowpea CRSP (1980–2007) and its successor, the Dry Grain Pulses CRSP (2007-2012), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) strove to achieve positive impacts in these strategic areas through innovative research and training focused on bean and cowpea value chains for the mutual benefit of developing countries in Sub‐Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the United States.

With the extension of its award from USAID beginning in 2013, the Dry Grain Pulse CRSP was renamed the Feed the Future Legume Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Grain Legumes.

The global mission of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research (and the previous Dry Grain Pulses and Bean/Cowpea CRSPs) is to leverage the capacities of U.S. universities’ to generate new knowledge and technological outputs through collaborative research and training activities with the ultimate goals of:

  1. building the human resource base and institutional capacity of national agricultural research systems and agricultural universities and
  2. enhancing bean and cowpea consumption, utilization, and food security in Sub‐Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the United States.

Click on the links on this page or under “Achievements” in the main menu for highlights and a sample of the most recent achievements by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research as well as ts predecessors, the Dry Grain Pulses CRSP and the Bean/Cowpea CRSP, in the areas listed below. Note that because projects under the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research are only just beginning, the most recent work cited in these links will be from the final year of Dry Grain Pulses CRSP projects. This work will be updated as Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research projects advance.

Research Publications

Institutional Capacity Building and Human Resources Development

Outputs, Outcomes, and Impacts

Impact Briefs

  • Impact Brief, 4: Economic impact of CRSP’s investment in the development and dissemination of improved cowpea varietal technology: New evidence from Senegal
  • Impact Brief, 3:  Farmers in West and Central Africa Obtain Economic Benefits from Enhanced Cowpea Storage Technologies
  • Impact Brief, 2: Sustaining a Steady Flow of High Yielding, Improved Bean Varieties Through the Bean Research Network in Central America
  • Impact Brief, 1: Improved Bean Varieties in Central America and Ecuador Generate Economic Benefits to Farmers

Program Publications

Global Pulse Research Meetings

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