A newly-launched cross-continental research and development project seeks to increase legume yields in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The Tropical Legumes Project was officially launched in September 2007 in Rustenburg Kloof, South Africa, and in Arusha, Tanzania, according to a statement by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
The project involves 14 African and Asian national agricultural research programmes in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Mali, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
The project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"Legumes hold great promise for fighting hunger, increasing income and improving soil fertility," the statement said, adding however that legumes had not received the scientific or funding attention needed to increase crop yields of small holder farmers' in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, enhance their food security and reduce poverty.
The first of the two-prong approach focuses on sub-Saharan Africa and four legumes - beans, cowpeas, groundnut and chickpeas.
It will be led by the Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) of the Consultative Group on Agricultural Research (CGIAR), in collaboration with partners from national research programmes, universities and CGIAR centres.
The second approach prong focuses on large-scale breeding, seed multiplication and distribution primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, thus paving the way for the research results from the first approach to translate into breeding materials for the ultimate benefit of resource-poor farmers.
"These projects will partner with the Programme for African Seed Systems, a major initiative within the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, to ensure African farmers have access to seed of improved legume varieties.
"Legumes are critically important as a source of income and nutrition for low-income farm families. However, there has not been enough investment in this area in the past," the statement quoted Dr. Rajiv Shah, Director of Agricultural Development, Global Development Programme at the Gates Foundation, as saying., "We hope this project – by working across the value chain and linking to other investments like AGRA – will help deliver meaningful benefits to farmers' fields and families. We also hope it will encourage others to increase their investments in this type of critical, farmer-oriented agricultural research," he added.
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