The cowpea breeding program at INERA in Burkina Faso aims to improve cowpea varieties through farmer-preferred traits like resistance to pests and diseases. The program was established in 1978 in collaboration with IITA and has released over 30 varieties. However, the program is limited by having only one permanent cowpea breeder and needs additional infrastructure, staff, and training. Plans to strengthen the program include collaborating more with international partners, reducing variety release timelines, improving database management, and upgrading facilities.

1. INERA COWPEA PROGRAM
IMPROVEMENT PLANS
Dr. Joseph B. Batieno
Cowpea breeder INERA-Burkina Faso
2nd September , 2016, Jacaranda Hotel, Nairobi

2. • Cowpea breeding program has been implemented at INERA since 1978 under IITA-
SAFGRAD program at Kamboinsé
• Some of improved breeding lines and germplasm collection have been shared with
other national partners and IITA
• Support received from several donor agencies and projects: USAID, EU, Kirkhouse
Trust, LIL, GCP, TLIII (BMGF)…
• The BPAT should be a useful tool in identifying strengths and weaknesses of the
program.
Background

3. 1. Breeding unit
• Breeding team:
1. Only one PhD holding Cowpea Breeder (others are retired or moved to other positions outside
country) based at Kamboinsé
2. Two MSc in breeding
3. One MSc in Molecular breeding lab management
4. One BSc technician on quality seed production
5. Collaborator from pathology, entomology labs; socio-economist and agronomist
6. MSc student and PhD student under training
• Need Recruitment of additional cowpea breeder with permanent position at INERA
• Need recruitment of technicians because all technician are under contract
• Need training of PhD and MSc in cowpea breeding

4. 2. Infrastructure
• Basic facilities for screening for aphid resistance and germplasm maintenance, and crosses
(to be improved)
• Need designed environment for drought tolerance screenings (rainout shelter)
• Low transportation capacity (cars and motorbikes for field activities)
• Basic irrigation facility (0.25ha) for lines advances
• Need Screenhouses and irrigation systems need upgrading
• Need Mechanization (planting, harvesting and seed processing)
• Station field unsecured and lands are degraded

5. • Poor internet connection
• Biotechnology lab for molecular breeding available but only for gel-based markers
• Small size cool storage room available
• Electricity issue but supply by small capacity power generator
2. Infrastructure

6. 3. Breeding Methodology
• Farmer’s preferred oriented and Trait prioritization (Striga, aphids, Maruca, virus,
Alectra, seed color, seed size,…)
• Optimize breeding workflows and reduce cycle time
• Increase number of crosses and trial per year
• Implementation of BMS on-going (still need training on the molecular aspect of the
BMS <<OptiMas, GDMS, MBDT etc.>>)
• MARS & MABC method through outsourcing (LGC-genomic and UCR)
• Need to integrate SSD with recycling of of elite materials
• Increase the use of molecular tools in our breeding – UCR

7. • Understand germplasm diversity better in the breeding pipelines
(haplotype diversity)
• Insure genetic purity and integrity at all stages of breeding pipeline by
using molecular tools
• Improve seed handling, threshing, and storage
• Working intensively with IITA cowpea team and other collaborators
• Reduce time between varieties releases

8. 4.Cultivar devpt, release & pro.
• 1981 -2013 releases of more than 30 cowpea varieties
• Promotion of the varieties is intensively supported by projects and the agricultural
extension system, NGO’s and Seed entreprises
• Promotion is also done through trainings
• New service for variety release but not really working impacting new variety release
• MARS lines gone under FPVS last year and AYT after 2 cycles
• MABC for drought and seed size under PYT
• MAGIC line (300ind) under striga and drought screening
• AYT for striga resistance
• 5 lines are ready to be submitted to the release committee

9. 5. Program impact
• Cowpea production from intercropping only to pure cropping system (improved
varieties)
• Important number of improved varieties
• Market and consumer oriented varieties are available and are grown over the country
• Production increased from 100 000 T in 1978 to 600 000 T in 2013
• Well established and trained seed enterprises and individual seed farmers
• Large scale dissemination of cowpea production and conservation (PICS) technologies
• Different ongoing projects/initiatives will increase adoption of improved varieties.
• Adoption studies need to be conducted for updates
• Assessment of impact is needed

10. 6.action plans
• Continue aligning Cowpea breeding objectives with Farmer preferred traits and the general Crop
improvement strategy by INERA ,
• Continue collaborating with CGIAR centers like IITA and International research groups (UCR, UV, MSU
etc.) and other NARS partners (SARI, ISRA, IER, INRAN etc.) through sharing best practices, training,
collaborating on projects...
• Reduce cycle of releasing new varieties
• Enhance database management of the breeding program by using improved tools like BMS
• Train on the molecular aspect of BMS (OptiMAS, MBDT, and GDMS) for MARS and MABC
• Include SSD in the program
• Make use of our platforms for FPVS and variety promotion
• Enhance germplasm management (fingerprinting, storage, …)
• Conduct regional trials (material received from IITA)
• Upgrade infrastructures