Cowpea farmers at Ejura in the Ashanti Region are happy about the introduction of new cowpea varieties by the Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-CRI).

The new cowpea varieties including Zamzam, Nketewade, hansadua and Agyenkwa were developed by the Crop Research Institute

The new varieities are early maturing (65 days), high-yielding, fast-cooking, nutritious, and exhibit tolerance to drought and common insect-pests diseases of cowpeas.

The Zamzam variety, particularly, is rich in mineral iron and has the potential to reduce iron deficient illness, especially in children and women.

Eunice Mensah is a cowpea farmer at Ejura. She explained that the Zamzam variety were barely attacked by the pests and grew rapidly when she planted them. 

“I had already planted my cowpeas when this new variety came. I planted a small quantity of them when they came. 

“But, they grew faster than the ones I had earlier planted. 

“It’s also not affected by pests compared to the old ones which I have to spray with more pesticides,” she said. 

Another farmer, Kade Domeh explained she was surprised at the rapid growth and higher yields after planting one of the variants of cowpeas. 

“I planted the Zamzam variant. I was surprised at how it rapidly grew and yielded higher results. 

“It took a longer period for the old variety to bear flowers compared to this new one. This new variety grows beautifully and produces higher yields

"Also, this new variety cooks faster and tastes nicer than the old one,” she said.

The project, supported by the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) with funding from the USAID, seeks to bring key actors along the cowpea seed value chain to address bottlenecks so farmers could benefit from existing high quality seeds available in the country.

The project seeks to ensure improved seeds from the breeder institutions like the Crop Research Institute are made available to certified private seed companies and ultimately, farmers. 

The project would help bridge the gap of farmers not having access to these advanced seeds. 

Dr. Sylvester Addy is the project’s focal person at the CSIR-Crops Research Institute. He is a Senior Research Scientist, Plant breeder and the Head of the Legumes and Oil Seed Improvement Division of the CSIR-CRI.

“This would ensure that there’s food security, nutrition security, and profitability,” he said. 

He further appealed to the government to include cowpeas in the planting for food and jobs programme and also fund crop research in the country. 

“I’m appealing to the government to add cowpeas to the food crops for the planting for food and jobs programme, because it is a significant food security crop. 

"Cowpea has an impressive and nutritional profile, which is beneficial to all classes of persons in Ghana.

“So that we can cultivate lots of cowpea to help farmers gain enough profits and also generate revenue for the government. 

“We’re also appealing to the government to fund crop research conducted in the country,” he added. 

The Ejura municipality is noted for its significant cowpea production.

However, cowpea farms within the municipality are faced with poor yields as a result of bad farming practices and low use of improved varieties.

Farmers employ broadcasting method of sowing known as "All die be die".

As part of the field day, the farmers were trained in improved cowpea productions technologies.

The farmers were told to adhere to adhere to the recommended planting distancing and seed rates in order to obtain the maximum plant population for higher yields.