Legume Lab Receives Funding from USAID Niger Mission to Improve Cowpea Production
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EmailFrom the October 2022 Newsletter
A new project, Improving Cowpea Production in Niger will be managed by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research led by Michigan State University. The project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Niger Mission.
One activity of the project focuses on integrated pest management (IPM) solutions for cowpea farmers. Over the past decade, the National Agricultural Research Institute of Niger (INRAN), the University of Maradi, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) have created and tested the use of animations in local languages to train farmers on better strategies for controlling insect pests without the need for second-generation chemical pesticide sprays. Published research has demonstrated that integration of animations into IPM training efforts has highly positive impacts on farmer learning and adoption of the techniques (e.g., 89% adoption rates by farmers for post-harvest loss prevention techniques; Bello-Bravo et al., 2020).
The project will use these creative tools towards development of a pan-Niger deployment network using a systems approach that can be used to continually scale other content beyond the scope of the project.
The second activity of the project will develop a cowpea variety process map based on the cowpea variety product life cycle with a main focus on identifying varieties carrying key traits as outlined by the Niger USAID Mission for scaling over the next three years.
The product development map will serve downstream varietal scaling release assessments for use after the end of the project while the varietal recommendations will serve the immediate need for scaling recommendations. Having identified stakeholders in the cowpea product development lifecycle, the project will also initiate a Cowpea ‘Community of Practice’ with the aim of building longer-term capacity in cowpea product development.
Project partners include Niger National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRAN), the University of Maradi, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO).
