Breeding of Vegetable Cowpea for Nutrition and Climate Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress, Opportunities, and Challenges
Currently, the world population is increasing, and humanity is facing food and nutritional scarcity. Climate change and variability are a major threat to global food and nutritional security, reducing crop productivity in the tropical and subtropical regions of the globe. Cowpea has the potential to...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Plants |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/11/12/1583 |
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| author | Tesfaye Walle Mekonnen Abe Shegro Gerrano Ntombokulunga Wedy Mbuma Maryke Tine Labuschagne |
| author_facet | Tesfaye Walle Mekonnen Abe Shegro Gerrano Ntombokulunga Wedy Mbuma Maryke Tine Labuschagne |
| author_sort | Tesfaye Walle Mekonnen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Currently, the world population is increasing, and humanity is facing food and nutritional scarcity. Climate change and variability are a major threat to global food and nutritional security, reducing crop productivity in the tropical and subtropical regions of the globe. Cowpea has the potential to make a significant contribution to global food and nutritional security. In addition, it can be part of a sustainable food system, being a genetic resource for future crop improvement, contributing to resilience and improving agricultural sustainability under climate change conditions. In malnutrition prone regions of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, cowpea has become a strategic dryland legume crop for addressing food insecurity and malnutrition. Therefore, this review aims to assess the contribution of cowpea to SSA countries as a climate-resilient crop and the existing production challenges and perspectives. Cowpea leaves and immature pods are rich in diverse nutrients, with high levels of protein, vitamins, macro and micronutrients, minerals, fiber, and carbohydrates compared to its grain. In addition, cowpea is truly a multifunctional crop for maintaining good health and for reducing non-communicable human diseases. However, as a leafy vegetable, cowpea has not been researched and promoted sufficiently because it has not been promoted as a food security crop due to its low yield potential, susceptibility to biotic and abiotic stresses, quality assurance issues, policy regulation, and cultural beliefs (it is considered a livestock feed). The development of superior cowpea as a leafy vegetable can be approached in different ways, such as conventional breeding and gene stacking, speed breeding, mutation breeding, space breeding, demand-led breeding, a pan-omics approach, and local government policies. The successful breeding of cowpea genotypes that are high-yielding with a good nutritional value as well as having resistance to biotics and tolerant to abiotic stress could also be used to address food security and malnutrition-related challenges in sub-Saharan Africa. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:43:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f1dba4e289994675870740d07f0f712d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2223-7747 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:43:05Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Plants |
| spelling | doaj.art-f1dba4e289994675870740d07f0f712d2023-11-23T18:34:54ZengMDPI AGPlants2223-77472022-06-011112158310.3390/plants11121583Breeding of Vegetable Cowpea for Nutrition and Climate Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress, Opportunities, and ChallengesTesfaye Walle Mekonnen0Abe Shegro Gerrano1Ntombokulunga Wedy Mbuma2Maryke Tine Labuschagne3Department of Plant Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9301, South AfricaAgricultural Research Council-Vegetable, Industrial and Medicinal Plants, Pretoria 0001, South AfricaDepartment of Plant Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9301, South AfricaDepartment of Plant Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9301, South AfricaCurrently, the world population is increasing, and humanity is facing food and nutritional scarcity. Climate change and variability are a major threat to global food and nutritional security, reducing crop productivity in the tropical and subtropical regions of the globe. Cowpea has the potential to make a significant contribution to global food and nutritional security. In addition, it can be part of a sustainable food system, being a genetic resource for future crop improvement, contributing to resilience and improving agricultural sustainability under climate change conditions. In malnutrition prone regions of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, cowpea has become a strategic dryland legume crop for addressing food insecurity and malnutrition. Therefore, this review aims to assess the contribution of cowpea to SSA countries as a climate-resilient crop and the existing production challenges and perspectives. Cowpea leaves and immature pods are rich in diverse nutrients, with high levels of protein, vitamins, macro and micronutrients, minerals, fiber, and carbohydrates compared to its grain. In addition, cowpea is truly a multifunctional crop for maintaining good health and for reducing non-communicable human diseases. However, as a leafy vegetable, cowpea has not been researched and promoted sufficiently because it has not been promoted as a food security crop due to its low yield potential, susceptibility to biotic and abiotic stresses, quality assurance issues, policy regulation, and cultural beliefs (it is considered a livestock feed). The development of superior cowpea as a leafy vegetable can be approached in different ways, such as conventional breeding and gene stacking, speed breeding, mutation breeding, space breeding, demand-led breeding, a pan-omics approach, and local government policies. The successful breeding of cowpea genotypes that are high-yielding with a good nutritional value as well as having resistance to biotics and tolerant to abiotic stress could also be used to address food security and malnutrition-related challenges in sub-Saharan Africa.https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/11/12/1583climate changecowpeafoodgene pyramidingnutrition securityspeed breeding |
| spellingShingle | Tesfaye Walle Mekonnen Abe Shegro Gerrano Ntombokulunga Wedy Mbuma Maryke Tine Labuschagne Breeding of Vegetable Cowpea for Nutrition and Climate Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress, Opportunities, and Challenges Plants climate change cowpea food gene pyramiding nutrition security speed breeding |
| title | Breeding of Vegetable Cowpea for Nutrition and Climate Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress, Opportunities, and Challenges |
| title_full | Breeding of Vegetable Cowpea for Nutrition and Climate Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress, Opportunities, and Challenges |
| title_fullStr | Breeding of Vegetable Cowpea for Nutrition and Climate Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress, Opportunities, and Challenges |
| title_full_unstemmed | Breeding of Vegetable Cowpea for Nutrition and Climate Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress, Opportunities, and Challenges |
| title_short | Breeding of Vegetable Cowpea for Nutrition and Climate Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress, Opportunities, and Challenges |
| title_sort | breeding of vegetable cowpea for nutrition and climate resilience in sub saharan africa progress opportunities and challenges |
| topic | climate change cowpea food gene pyramiding nutrition security speed breeding |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/11/12/1583 |
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