Selection of cowpea cultivars for cool-season production in the Sahel
1993
Ntare, B R | Williams, J H
Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is traditionally grown during the short rainy season in the Sahelian zone of west Africa, but there are opportunities for dry-season production providing the problems of low night temperatures can be overcome. The objective of this research was to identify cultivars suitable for irrigated cropping during the cool post-rainy season. Four hundred and thirtytwo lines representing breeding and local germplasm lines from Niger were tested for field emergence, flowering and podding in the coolest time of the year. A selected set of lines was evaluated for yield and other characteristics. Seedling emergence began 8 days after sowing and seedlings emerged over a 7-day period. Seventy-four percent of the local germplasm lines recorded 76–100% emergence as compared to 4% of the breeding lines. The growth of seedlings was very slow. The time to maturity was not well related to the maturity during the normal cropping season. Cooler temperatures prolonged time to maturity. All lines flowered but some did not set pods. The highest pod set was recorded in the early-maturity group. Grain yield and related attributes declined sharply when sowing was done in January as compared with the November sowing. The differences observed among selected cultivars and sowing dates were mainly due to variation in crop growth rate.
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