In Africa cowpea is food for over 200 million people. The crop is drought and heat tolerant, fixes nitrogen thereby enriching the soil, is protein rich and makes excellent fodder. Although cowpea provides income through a thriving regional trade in West Africa, the crop has an untapped potential in valued-added cowpea–based street foods, convenience foods and high-nutrition products. Cowpea yields obtained by smallholder farmers fall far below the yield potential. Production constraints include insects, diseases, lack of fertilizer, scarcity of planting seeds of good cultivars, and inadequate market information. Insect pests in particular diminish cowpea production during both vegetative stages and post-harvest storage, and witchweed, Striga, is a serious threat that appears to be spreading to new areas.

The Network for Genetic Improvement for Africa (NGICA) was formed in Dakar, Senegal, in January 2001. This international consortium of cowpea scientists and stakeholders recognized that special effort was needed to bring the latest tools of science and technology to bear upon the obstacles confronting cowpea production. While a lot of NGICA’s initial effort was devoted to helping develop an efficient, reliable and reproducible transformation system for cowpea to introduce new sources of insect resistance, more recent efforts have been directed towards using biotechnological tools such as molecular markers in marker-assisted breeding. NGICA has also been addressing anticipated problems that are likely to arise along the value chain in bringing genetically improved cowpea into the hands of African farmers. The presentation will highlight the progress we have made in building an innovative community approach to cowpea improvement. It will describe the strategic partnerships that NGICA has formed with the African Agricultural Technology Foundation and Kirkhouse Trust and will share some of its achievements and challenges to date.