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Sep 5, 2019Keywords:
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Main Article Content
Participatory rural appraisal of the impact of drought and farmers’ preferences for cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) walp] in Kano State, Nigeria
Abstract
Drought is the most important constraint threatening food security in the world because change in temperature and rainfall has drastic effect on agricultural productivity. A more sustainable approach to improving farmers’ adoption of new crop varieties and new technologies is to include farmers in the developmental processes. This study aimed at analyzing the impact of drought on cowpea production, control strategies and to identify farmers’ preferred traits of breeding priorities of cowpea. A participatory rural appraisal (PRA) was conducted in cowpea growing regions of four local government areas of Kano State, Nigeria with total of 150 individuals for semi-structured survey and 80 individuals for focus group discussion (FGD). Results of this study indicate that 80% of cowpea farmers interviewed had experienced drought stress during growing season and that about 75% of the grain yield were lost whenever drought stress occurred during the growing season. About 55% of the respondents use irrigation as a control strategy, 93% manipulate planting and harvesting times and 95% planted improved cowpea varieties. Grain yield reduction between 51% and 75% was recorded by the farmers in the event of drought corresponding to reduction in the realizable income. Drought, pests and diseases and non-availability of drought tolerant varieties were major constraints to production. Quality traits such as large seeds and short cooking time were equally preferred as drought and pest tolerance when choosing cowpea varieties. These findings are relevant in breeding for drought tolerant varieties which combine farmers’ preferences for choosing new varieties.
Keywords: Cowpea production, drought tolerance, preferred traits, PRA, and sustainability
