Journal of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Vol. 5(1), pp. 14-20, January 2013 Available online at http:// academicjournals.org/JAERD DOI: 10.5897/JAERD12.118 ISSN 2141-2154 ©2013 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Farmers’ key production constraints and traits desired in cowpea in Ghana K. F. Egbadzor*, M. Yeboah, S. K. Offei, K. Ofori and E. Y. Danquah West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement, College of Agriculture and consumer Sciences, University of Ghana, Ghana. Accepted 6 December, 2012 A survey was conducted in three southern districts of the Volta Region of Ghana and Agbogbloshie market in Accra to ascertain current production constraints faced by farmers and consumers’ desired traits of cowpea. There were two focus group discussions, one in Akatsi and the other at Ketu North District. A total of 180 farmers, 45 food vendors, 30 seed dealers and 80 cowpea traders were interviewed. The interviewees were made up of 226 females and 109 males. Data were classified and analyzed with SAS 9.2 and results presented in tables and graphs. It was realized that most of the cowpea found in the markets at the time of this study were imported from different countries within the West Africa sub-region. Farmers normally sell their products at farm gate at the time of harvest. Preference for cowpea with cream large seeds which is sweet and easy to cook among Ghanaian consumers has not changed. Constraints to cowpea farming identified were similar to those known elsewhere: Including insect pests, diseases, drought, cyperus spp. as weed and harvesting difficulty. Key words: Cowpea, constraints, desired traits, insect pests, drought. INTRODUCTION Cowpea is the second most important food legume in and Diao, 2007). The inability of Ghana to produce Ghana. It is second to groundnut in terms of area under enough cowpea to feed the citizenry is multi-faceted. The cultivation, quantity produced and consumed annually. Guinea Savanna zone of Ghana is the major cowpea The area under cowpea cultivation in Ghana peaked in production area in the country (Al-Hassan and Diao, the year 2003 with 190,400 ha (MOFA, SRID, 2011). 2007). For paradigm, Upper West and Northern regions However, there have been slight reductions in the area produced 75,969 and105, 841 MT respectively in 2010 under cowpea cultivation from then to 163,700 ha in (MOFA, SRID, 2011). Unfortunately, production can be 2010. Despite the decline in area, total cowpea grain done only within a short period in the year in these production per annum has increased from 142,300 MT in regions because of long period of drought. Another major 2004 to 219,300 MT in 2010. This is an indication of factor that may be affecting the production and higher yields which may be due to adoption of consumption of cowpea in Ghana could be varietal combination of factors including better agronomic preference (Langyintuo et al., 2003). Ghanaians are practices and higher yielding varieties. known to prefer cream seeded cowpea (Quaye et al., Cowpea consumption is higher than production in 2009). Ghana. There was import of 3,380 MT of cowpea grains Production of cowpea with consumer preferred grain which supplemented the country’s production of 219,300 type could boost its cultivation in Ghana. The improved MT in 2010. This is however, a tremendous improvement cowpea varieties under cultivation in the country were over the deficit of 1990 which was 113,000 MT (Al-Hassan mostly released by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) institutions. CSIR – Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) released a number of varieties but mainly recommended for the Guinea *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]. savanna zone (Padi et al., 2004). The most popular Egbadzor et al. 15 Table 1. Pair-wise ranking of preferred traits of cowpea during focus group discussions. Traits Coat colour Wholeness Seed size Sweetness Easy to cook Score Rank Avenorpedo(n = 24) Coat colour ------------- Wholeness Seed size Sweetness Easy to cook 0 5 Wholeness ------------- Seed size Wholeness Easy to cook 2 2 Seed size ----------- Sweetness Easy to cook 2 2 Sweetness ------------ Easy to cook 2 2 Easy to cook -------------- 5 1 Ohawu(n = 16) Coat colour ------------- Wholeness Seed size Sweetness Easy to cook 0 5 Wholeness Wholeness Sweetness Easy to cook 2 3 Seed size ------------ Sweetness Easy to cook 1 4 Sweetness ------------ ----------- Sweetness 4 1 Easy to cook -------------- 3 2 breeder released cowpea variety in cultivation in Ghana Questionnaires were administered in Ho Municipality (Volta is “Asontem”, a variety developed by the International Region) and Agbogbloshie market in Accra in addition to Ketu North Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and introduced in and Akatsi. Ho municipality is in the North West direction to Akatsi with Adaklu-Anyigbe district in-between them. Agbogbloshie is a Ghana by the CSIR – Crop Research Institute (CRI) in very large market in Accra where a lot of foodstuff is sold including 1984 (Asafo-Adjei et al., 2005). Limitation of Asontem cowpea. may be its red seed coat. “Nhyira” is another popular cowpea variety released by CRI. Although Nhyira has cream seed coat, its seeds are small and not attractive to Respondents consumers just like cultivar Ayiyi (Asafo-Adjei and Singh, Interaction was made with a total of 375 individuals. Thirteen men 2005), Asetenapa and Bengpla. The most preferred, and and 11 women participated in the focus group discussion at consequently, imported grain types of cowpea are large Avenorpedo while that of Ohawu was 10 men and 6 women. Sixty and cream coloured. “Nigerien Cowpea” (Langyintuo et farmers each were interviewed in Akatsi, Ketu North, and Ho. The al., 2004), cultivars for example, are not normally grown farmers at Akatsi were made up of 36 men and 24 women. There in Ghana. were 28 men to 32 women and 40 men to 20 women at Ketu North and Ho respectively. Ten cowpea seed dealers and 15 food Currently, cowpea production on the coastal belt of vendors from each of the 3 districts were also interviewed. In Ghana is subsistence, with only pockets of commercial addition, a total of 80 cowpea traders, were interviewed from the 3 production, although, the demand for the crop in the districts and Agbogbloshie market. Only one seed dealer from region is high. Knowledge on quality or consumer Akatsi and 2 each from Ho and Ketu North were females, however, preference of product and constrains to production would all the food vendors and cowpea traders were females. help in developing acceptable varieties for cultivation in a given locality. It is important to diagnose the consumer Data collection and analysis preference and the reason(s) for the shortfall in produc- tion which warrants importation of cowpea to the coastal Different strategies were employed in data collection including savanna zone of Ghana. The survey therefore inquired telephone calls, informal contacts as well as planned interviews. about: The respective district agricultural officers were very instrumental in identifying qualified respondents notwithstanding, by random sampling. Interview guide was used for focus group discussion at 1. The desirable end use traits of cowpea the two sites. Questionnaires were administered to individual 2. The major setbacks hampering cowpea cultivation in respondents at various locations. Results recorded in excel were the coastal savanna of Ghana imported into SAS 9.2 and analyzed using nonparametric statistics and summarized into averages, frequencies or percentages and shown in tables and graphs. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study site RESULTS Focus group discussion was conducted at Avenorpedo and Ohawu Priority traits of cowpea in the Akatsi and Ketu North districts respectively in the Volta Region of Ghana. Akatsi district is located between latitude 6°S – 7°N and 0° W – 1°E and shares boundary with Ketu North to the Pair wise ranking of grain coat colour, wholeness, size, east which also shares boundary with the Republic of Togo to its sweetness and ease of cooking (Table 1) was done to east. important on cowpea grain. 16 J. Agric. Ext. Rural Dev. Figure 1. Most suitable cowpea types for different meals. Constraints to cowpea cultivation Grain problems reported by food vendors Five constraints at Avenorpedo and four at Ohawu were Foreign materials, mould, rot and weevils were reported identified and ranked. Three top constraints namely, by the food vendors as problems, however, the drought, insect pests attack and cyperus infestation were significance of each differs from district to district (Figure identified at the two locations of the PRA. Mould and 2). Mould was the most reported problem at Akatsi as problem of preservation were additionally mentioned at against foreign materials and weevils at Ho and Ketu Avenorpedo while only harvesting problem was added to North respectively the three at Ohawu. These means a total of six problems were mentioned. Preferred seed size by cowpea traders Most grown cowpea varieties in Akatsi, Ho and Ketu- Large seeded cowpeas are preferred to smaller and North districts medium sizes across the four markets of the survey. It was quite clear that same variety has different names from locality to another while different varieties were also Traits to improve on cowpea called same name in some cases like ‘Black eye’. Over all, the most grown varieties are Black eye and Awakli. In Cowpea seed dealers perceive that the most important Akatsi district the most grown is Awakli while the number traits to be improved on current varieties of cowpea are of farmers who grow Dapango most was equal to that of insect pest resistance, drought tolerant and yield. Awakli in Ketu North. Black eye is the most grown in Ho. Five different varieties are among the most grown in Akatsi and Ketu North while only two are the most grown DISCUSSION in Ho.