1. Muhammad Lawan Umar
Department of Plant Science, Institute for Agricultural Research, ABU-Zaria
E-mail: mlumar@abu.edu.ng , lumar@wacci.edu.gh
Presented at B4FA media
Fellowship training 24th –
27th Sept 2012, IITA,
Ibadan, Nigeria

2. Gene Deployment- system of assigning specific
resistance gene to a specific area to control insect
Bt-=Bacillus thurengiensis (soil microorganism)
Bt gene- gene obtained from soil bacterium
Maruca- flying insect (lepidopteran)
Terms used in the topic

3. Cowpea
Most important legumes in Africa
Over 60 million people consume cowpea
products everyday in Nigeria
Mixture of cowpea and rice
Cowpea paste
mixed with spice
Made from cowpea flour
Akara/ Kosai

4. Cowpea
Provides employment to millions people
Cowpea farmer Cowpea processor &
consumers waiting

5. Cowpea production
Grows everywhere but mostly Savanna/Derived
Savannas
Africa is the leading cowpea producer in the
world
Nigeria accounts for > half (58% ) of worldwide
production
• largest consumer and largest importer
– National Deficit over 500,000 tons
*Made up through imports-20 billion naira

6. Causes of production deficit
Drought

7. Parasitic Flowering Plants
• AlectraStriga

8. Constraints to production- Insect
Flower thrips Aphid

9. CONSTRAINTS TO PRODUCTION- MARUCA
Up 80% yield loss
Maruca larva Maruca adult

10. Constraints to production- Maruca cont’d
Maruca damages the flower

11. Pod damage
Maruca damages the pod
Constraints to production- Maruca cont’d

12. SOCIO-ECONOMIC EFFECT-MARUCA
Up to 80%Yield loss for Grains
Poor Quality Grains-Reduced Income
Estimated Revenue loss at 400kg/ha-35.52
billion naira
Food insecurity
- Spreads Poverty
- Malnutrition
- Poor health

13. IMPACT –MARUCA RESISTANT COWPEA
Increase yield up to 20 times
Improve Quality of the Grains
Reduce cost of Production- increase income
Food security
- Reduce Poverty
- Improve health

14. STRATEGIES - CONTROL MARUCA
Insecticide sprays Host plant Resistance

15. PAST EFFORTS -MARUCA
Research institutes- developed and released many
varieties
• Consumers preferred traits- seed size, colour
Identified source of resistance:
• Diseases resistance- TVU 12349
• Aphid resistance-TVU 3000, IT84S-2246-4
• Parasitic weeds- IT81D-994
Source of resistance to maruca?????

16. PAST EFFORTS MARUCA
Screening Techniques Developed-
Louis Jackai
Screened 15,000 accessions,
no resistance found
Unsuccessful wide crossing
with Resistance in Vigna
vexillata Fatokun et al(2002)
Way out???

17. Bt cowpea: History
International Symposium on Cowpea improvement-
Dakar, Jan 2001
Birth of NGICA
Group of experts meeting, Nairobi, (2003)- application
of crop biotechnology as the potential strategy to combat
maruca (Huesing et al, 2011)
• AATF- gene access
• Partners - USAID, CSIRO, IAR, INERA and CSIR-
SARI RF (Popelka et al, 2006)

18. Strategies for Bt-cowpea Deployment
Laboratory work- CSIRO, Australia
• Developed system of gene introgression/transfer
• Transferred the gene into IT86D-1010 (Cowpea
genotype)
• Preliminary efficacy test - conducted in a glass
house

19. Strategies for Bt-cowpea Deployment
Confined Field Trial (CFT)- a small-scale
experimental field trial of a GM plant species
performed under regulated conditions
• Critical step- development & commercialization,
Maruca resistance cowpea variety

20. Small Scale Field Test [Confined Field Trial (CFT)]
• Why CFT?
Assess the performance of the transformed cowpeas
under natural condition
Assess the level of gene expression
Assess interaction of the test material by environment
Maintain control over planting materials and harvest
prior to biosafety assessment

21. CFT APPROVAL PROCESS
• Application- submitted to NBC of the FMENV
(December 23, 2008)
• NBC & Biotechnology experts- reviewed the
application
• Regulators- interact with the research team

22. Biosafety requirements
• NBC – scrutinized application, assessed the
facilities and verify measures put in place
CFT-site Maruca rearing laboratory

23. Regulatory
One year permit for CFT granted
by the Biosafety office- March
2009
Outcomes of the first CFT
necessitated the extension to 2013

24. IMPORT PERMIT-NAQS
IMPORT PERMIT PROCESSED AND GRANTED- NAQS
Checked the package Verified the content of the package

25. SEED STORE
Seeds Verified, Recorded and Kept Before Planting
Seed temporarily storedVerification completed

26. Moving from Laboratory to Field

27. CFT-SITE PLAN

28. 0.75m
1.5m
3.6m
1.5m
1.5m1.5m
3.6m
1m 1m
1m
1m
FIELD LAY OUT

29. CAN YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE?

30. ISOLATION DISTANCE MONITORING
Monitoring the surrounding field done
- Before planting
- Growing period on weekly basis
Aim- to destroy all sexually compatible
plants to prevent- Gene flow
Removed
Volunteer plant

31. Yield and Damage- Assessment
Yield potential-
Harvesting & threshing - manually by hand
Insect damage- attempts to penetrate the wall of
the pods and seeds assessed

32. TRANSPORTATION
Plant materials that need further investigation
are:
• Labeled
• Packaged- secure multiple containers to
prevent loss/damage in case of accident
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary

33. DISPOSAL OF MATERIAL
• All plant materials that do not need further
investigation - disposed

34. OUT COMES
AFTER 3-YEARS OF FIELD EXPERIMENT
-----One of the test materials indicates:
• Exceptional – resistance to maruca
• 20 fold yield increase compared to untransformed
cowpea
• What next?????

35. TRANSFER- RESISTANCE GENE-

36. Research team
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
NGICA

37. Thank You!