Abstract
The study was conducted at Gofa, Humbo, Kindo koyisha and Konso districts of South Nation Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) from May 2016 to February 2017 with the objective to assess the limitations on cowpea production conceived by farmers, farmers traits of interest and the farming system of cowpea. Participatory rural appraisal tools, which include seven focus group discussions and survey with 150 individual farmers, were used to generate data. Data recorded were analyzed on SPSS software and descriptive statistics were applied. The results showed that 85.3% of the farmers surveyed were men and the size of families ranged from 6 to 9 at the household level. Almost (40%) produced cowpea for household consumption, while 21.3% reported its food and income generation. The average cowpea fields were 0.24 ha with 503 kg/ ha as an average seed yield. The results revealed that 92.7% of farmers grow local landraces, whose seeds are recycled for many consecutive seasons, while approximately 7.3% grow both improved and local landrace. Cultivars were generally cultivated as intercrop (92.7 %) with maize or sorghum. Many factors limiting cowpea production were identified, key of which were lack of improved varieties, disease and insect pests, drought, poor access to extension, poor access to credit services, low soil fertility, farmland shortage, inappropriate agronomic practices and storage pests. Farmers also specified to have developed few managing mechanisms to counter the restraints. Farmers showed preference for high yielding coupled with early maturing cowpea varieties that are in addition, resistant to pests and diseases, tolerant to drought ,good taste,large seed size, fast cooking and seed colour. Therefore,it is recommended that there be a cowpea improvement program that can address above-mentioned constraints as well as the prefrences of farmers for sustainable cowpea production in Southern Ethiopia. Background: The success of crop varieties growing is closely associated to the utilizations, biophysical conditions, the cropping systems in which the crop is combined and preferences of farmers’. Cowpea is one of the lowland legumes grown for food, cash crop and medicinal purposes in the different growing areas of Southern Ethiopia. It is ranks the 5th to 9th important legume crop for household food, nutrition, and income generation for cultivating farmers, which contributes significantly to food security of the region. In spite of its importance, the crop received little research attention in the development improved varieties, cowpea productivity remains low.Exploring and describing the current cowpea cropping system, production constraints and farmers varietal perefrences in the main production areas will help in defining the cowpea improvement priorities. Methods: The study was conducted in four cowpea-growing districts in South Ethiopia. Participatory rural appraisal tools including seven focus group discussion,key informants and survey with 150 individual farmers, were conducted in Gofa, Humbo,Kindo koyisha and Konso districts from May 2016 to February 2017 to collect information on production system, constraints and preferred traits. Data collected through the questionnaires were processed and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 (SPSS, 2012). Analysis was performed for descriptive statistics, mean, frequencies and percentages. Cross tabulations were performed for data summary and chi-square analysis performed to test for significant differences between variables. Results: Farmers grow both local and improved varieties to meet their various goals in cowpea farming. Nearly 92.7 % of the farmers grow local landraces, whose seeds are recycled for many consecutive seasons, whilst approximately 7.3% grow both improved and local landrace. The results showed that 85.3% of the farmers surveyed were men and the size of families ranged from 6 to 9 at the household level. Almost (40%) produced cowpea for household consumption, while 21.3% reported its food and income generation. The average cowpea fields were 0.24 ha with 503 kg/ ha as the average grain yield. About 92.7% of cowpea growers associated cowpea with other crops, while 7.3 % of them grew the crop in pure stand. Cowpea grown in combination with maize (68.7 %) and 22.7 % with sorghum was the most encountered cropping system. The lack of improved varieties, disease and insect pests, drought, poor access to extension, poor access to credit services, low soil fertility, farmland shortage, inappropriate agronomic practices and storage pests are some of the important constraints affecting cowpea productivity. Framers showed preference for high yielding coupled with early maturing cowpea varieties that are in addition, resistant to pests and diseases, tolerant to drought ,good taste,large seed size, fast cooking and seed colour. Conclusion: Our results confirm the importance of cowpea both in the cropping systems and in contributing to ensure food security in the growing areas in South Ethiopia. Key production constraints and farmers’ varietal preferences were identified. The results of this study are helpful to breeders and agronomists to design appropriate strategies for sustainable cowpea production. Therefore,it is recommended that there be a cowpea development program that can address the above-mentioned constraints and the farmers’ preference for sustainable cowpea production in Southern Ethiopia. It implies that these findings can be used as the basis for designing research and development plans for continuous cowpea production and productivity by smallholder farmers in South Ethiopia.
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