Legume Lab Project Close-Out Meetings
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EmailFrom the August 2023 Newsletter
As the Legume Systems Innovation Labs begins to wind down program activities many of the projects are holding close-out meetings to share their successes.
A project led by Veronique Theriault titled, “Quantifying the Scale and Scope of Nutritious Cowpea Products in Local Markets of West Africa” recently held dissemination workshops in Mali and Senegal.
West Africa is the global locus of cowpea production. Yet, little is known in quantitative terms about the scale and scope of cowpea products supplied in local markets and demanded by households. Our research in Mali and Senegal has contributed to closing the information gap by building a quantitative inventory of cowpea products supplied locally and consumed by urban and rural households. In each country, key findings were presented to a diverse group of stakeholders during dissemination workshops organized by Dr. Mamadou Sissoko in Bamako, Mali, and Dr. Aliou Diagne in Thies, Senegal.
In both countries, the participants learned and discussed the opportunities and constraints in processing, selling, and consuming cowpea-based products, such as sho-froufrou, accra, and fari, in Mali and ndambe and akara in Senegal. At both workshops, processors were invited to display their processed cowpea products, and participants were offered cowpea-based products at lunch to their delight.
In Mali, the quality of the presentations given by the graduate students was noticed and appreciated as demonstrated by the testimony of one of the participants: “ I want to congratulate the students for speaking so eloquently. I was positively surprised to see them present with confidence. It shows that they were well-mentored.”
In Senegal, the presentations were followed by a fruitful discussion on how to better integrate cowpea-based products into school canteen menus. The two close-out workshops were a success, with stakeholders engaged and committed to further developing the cowpea value chains.
