Participants of 5th World Cowpea Research Conference

'You can't eat potential'

Senegal, which recently unveiled an ambitious programme to boost agricultural production, has challenged the research community to harness resources to expand the potential of nutritious crops like cowpea in feeding Africa.

During the opening the 5th World Cowpea Research Conference in Saly, Hon. Khadim Gueye, Minister of Agriculture, Senegal said that researchers should harness physical and human resources to solve production and marketing constraints facing Africa’s farmers. Senegal has rolled out an ambitious programme known as GOANA to increase food production and access to farm research outputs through limited seed and fertilizer subsidies to targeted farmers.

Minister Guyed said the GOANA initiative would put Senegal on track for exporting agricultural produce, noting that this would only be realised with condusive environment including the provision of improved inputs. He expressed hope that the gathering of the cowpea experts in Senegal would result in solutions to fighting pests and diseases affecting cowpea.

ISRA director general, Dr. Macoumba Diof called for increased collaboration between research institutions and universities to enhance the development of cowpea in line with government priorities on crop diversification and competitiveness.

In remarks to the conference, Deputy Director-General IITA, Dr. Lakshmi Menon, said growing global population meant a steep growth in food demands, increasing the potential the role of cowpea to meeting food, nutritional, monetary and food needs.

"Sadly, you can’t eat potential. Potential doesn't feed people. It is up to us all here to do our part to help Africa realize its potential,” said Dr. Menon.

Calling for the use of technological tools to improve agriculture, Dr. Menon said strategic research partnerships were essential to take advantage of the improving regional trade conditions in Africa.

End/Busani Bafana/

Building brains with better bread

Bread made with flour from the nutritious cowpea (black-Eyed Peas), is coming to the rescue of school children, increasingly at risk of protein deficiency, under a feeding project being piloted in Dakar, Senegal.

Cowpea, commonly known as niebe in Senegal, is one of the ingredients in the fortified bread being produced by Senegal’s Institute of Food Technology (ITA) to help improve nutrition in school children. The programme will be piloted in three schools in Senegal’s Guela Tapec District during the upcoming school term.

The fortified bread is made with 85 percent wheat, 15 percent cowpea flour and peanut butter. ITA is one of the research organisations around the world promoting the much neglected cow pea in the fight against malnutrition. Cowpea is packed with protein, vitamins and minerals ideal for childhood development.

"We realised that many school children leave homes without eating and cannot have milk because it is expensive so we have fortified the bread to deal with the lack of protein," ITA Director General, Dr. Ababacar Ndoye.

Introducing fortified bread is helping provide nutrition at an affordable cost not just for school children alone as the price of wheat flour is one the rise. The ITA pilot bakery is producing 160 loaves for promotion ahead of piloting the programmes in schools.

"We will expand the feeding programme to all the schools in Dakar," Dr. Ndoye said.

Fortified bread is one of the innovations of value-addition of the nutritious cow pea which after many years of neglect is enjoying new interest from scientists. Research on enhancing the profile of cowpea as a viable income generating and food security crop is the focus of a four day meeting, 5th World Cowpea Research Conference in Saly, Senegal from 27 September to 1 October 2010.