This document outlines the workplan for the third year of the Tropical Legumes III cowpea improvement programme in Ghana. The objectives are to enhance cowpea productivity and production in drought-prone areas by providing adapted and preferred varieties, and increasing farmer adoption of improved varieties and integrated crop management practices. Activities include breeding new varieties with resistance to aphids, Striga weed, and bacterial blight; evaluating lines in on-farm trials; producing breeder seed of released varieties; and demonstrations to promote best bet varieties and practices to farmers. Responsibilities and completion dates are defined for milestones such as establishing electronic data collection, capacity building, multi-location testing of lines, nutritional profiling, and producing 2,

1. Tropical legumes III year 2 workplan
Cowpea Improvement Programme – Ghana
TL III annual review meeting
3-4 March 2016
Chrismar hotel, Livingstone Zambia

2. Objective 3. To enhance cowpea productivity and production in drought prone areas
of Ghana
Sub-activity 3.1: SARI breeding programme regularly provide well-adapted and market
preferred improved cowpea cultivars to farmers as per their requirements
Milestone Specific
interventions
Responsibility Date of
completion
Output
Phenotyping
and
evaluation
data
collected
using hand-
held device
(e.g.,
electronic
field book)
at SARI
Training of
SARI’S
research
technicians
on the use of
electronic
fieldbook
(tablet) to
capture and
analyse data
M. Haruna
R. Oteng-
Frimpong
April 2016 Phenotyping
platform
established
using
electronic
field book

3. Objective 3. To enhance cowpea productivity and production in drought prone areas
of Ghana
Sub-activity 3.1: SARI breeding programme regularly provide well-adapted and market
preferred improved cowpea cultivars to farmers as per their requirements
Milestone Specific
interventions
Responsibility Date of
completion
Output
IBP tools
such as
MBDT,
OptiMAS,
and ISMU
used to
facilitate
MABC and
MARS in
SARI
Two weeks
refresher
course for 2
SARI
scientists on
phenotyping,
genotyping
and use of
IBP tools eg.
MBDT,
OptiMAS,
ISMU etc. at
IITA
A.Gloria
Yaw
Owusu
June 2016 IBM
platform
established
in IITA and
SARI

4. Objective 3. To enhance cowpea productivity and production in drought prone areas
of Ghana
Sub-activity 3.1: SARI breeding programme regularly provide well-adapted and market
preferred improved cowpea cultivars to farmers as per their requirements
Milestone Specific
interventions
Responsibility Date of
completion
Output
Different
data sets
(pedigree,
phenotyping
and
genotyping)
stored in
appropriate
databases
SARI
scientists
will be
trained on
the creation
and storage
of databases
using BMS
M. Haruna
R. Oteng-
Frimpong
May 2016 Data
management
using BMS
established

5. Activity 3.2. Breeding Pipeline - SARI using improved cowpea breeding lines for developing
better varieties
Milestone Specific interventions Responsibility Date of
completion
Output
At least 30
breeding lines
with aphid,
Striga, and
bacterial blight
resistance
developed using
MABC
1. Screen MABC
populations received
from IITA for aphids,
striga and bacterial
blight resistance
2. Multi-location testing
of lines using FPVS.
3. On-farm participatory
evaluation of lines.
4. Sensory/nutritional
evaluation of lines
with resistance to
aphids and striga
5. Introgressing striga
and aphids resistant
genes into existing
varieties by
hybridization
M. Haruna
A. Gloria
Yaw Owusu
I. Memunatu
Dec. 2018 30 lines with
aphids, striga
and bacterial
blight
resistance
screened and
advanced to
Multilocation
testing.

6. Activity 3.3 Testing for release
Milestone Specific
interventions
Responsibility Date of
completion
Output
At least 60 to 80
new, improved
breeding lines
with good
performance
evaluated at 4
locations in N/G
with a minimum
of 30%
participation by
women farmers.
1. Conduct adaptive
trials on 45-60
advanced breeding
lines with good
performance
Nyankpala.
2. Multi-location
testing of selected
good performing
lines at Nyankpala,
Damongo, Yendi
and Manga.
3. On-farm
participatory
evaluation with full
farmers'
participation
including women
farmers on
selecting preferred
lines.
M. Haruna
A. Gloria
Yaw Owusu
I. Memunatu
AEAs/MoFA
Private seed
Companies
Farmers
Dec. 2016 45-60
breeding
lines
developed
with 30%
women
farmers’
involvement

7. Activity 3.3 Testing for release
Milestone Specific interventions Responsibility Date of
completion
Output
FPVS trials
conducted with
200
participants
and not less
than 60 women.
1. Identification of
communities for FPVS
trials
2. Conduct FPVS
trials with 200
participants and not
less than 60 women
farmers participation
M. Haruna
A.Gloria
Yaw Owusu
I. Memunatu
AEAs/MoFA
Private seed
Companies
Farmers
Aug 2016 10 FPVS
trials
conducte
d in all 3
northern
regions

8. Activity 3.3 Testing for release
Milestone Specific
interventions
Responsibility Date of
completion
Output
Identify Five
to 10 new
varieties for
promotion
to on-farm
evaluations
Conduct on-
farm
evaluation of
5-10 high
performing
lines selected
from FPVS
trials .
M. Haruna
A.Gloria
Yaw Owusu
I. Memunatu
July 2016 Five to 10
new
varieties
identified
for
promotion
to on-farm
evaluation

9. Activity 3.3 Testing for release
Milestone Specific
interventions
Responsibility Date of
completion
Output
Nutrition
profiling of all
candidate
release
varieties to
ensure
nutritional
status equal to
or better than
available
standards
SARI will
collaborates with
the Food Research
Institute to profile
the nutritional
attributes of 8
released varieties
M. Haruna
A.Gloria
CSIR-FRI
Dec. 2016 Nutritional
profile of 8
released
varieties
profiled

10. Activity 3.4: Best Bet Varieties - Farmers using improved cowpea cultivars and ICM
practices and realising higher yields
Milestone Specific
interventions
Responsibility Date of
completion
Output
At least 40-60
demonstratio
ns carried out
in all 3
regions of
northern
Ghana
The project will
collaborate
with other
projects e.g.
COSP, N2Africa
to leverage
activities to
create synergy
and increase
number of
demonstrations
M. Haruna
A.Gloria
Yaw Owusu
I. Memunatu
AEAs/MoFA
Private seed
Companies
Farmers
Dec. 2016 60-80
demonstration
s will be
carried out in
all target
districts

11. Activity 3.4: Best Bet Varieties - Farmers using improved cowpea cultivars and ICM
practices and realising higher yields
Milestone Specific
interventions
Responsibility Date of
completion
Output
At least
2,000 kg
breeder
seed of
released
varieties to
be produced
per year.
The project
will
sustainably
intensify
Breeder
seed
production
of 4
released
varieties
M. Haruna
A.Gloria
Yaw Owusu
I. Memunatu
Dec. 2016 At least
300 kg
Breeder
seed
produced

12. THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION
Front view of CSIR-SARI L-Shape view of CSIR-SARI