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Lets Protect Our Health through Biodiversity |
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by Okoth Okoth | 23-05-2019 23:20
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The untold Benefits of Locally grown Cowpeas as a Leafy Vegetable By: Paul Okoth Have you ever wondered why Cowpeas are recommended by health experts? Being an indigenous crop in Africa over the last 3000 years the legume is best served and enjoyed by many Kenyans. Its nutritional value including calcium, phosphorus, carbohydrates proteins and fiber and being a good source of Vitamins A, B and C makes it to be considered as a gold harvest crop locally. Cowpea farming in Kenya is done for the cowpeas seeds and also their leaves. They are leguminous crops that can be used to provide vegetable and grain for food. The crop can withstand drought, short growing period and its multi-purpose use makes it an attractive alternative for farmers in marginal, drought-prone areas with low rainfall. It is suitable for a variety of intercropping system. Cowpea can be used at all stages of growth as a vegetable crop. The tender green leaves and immature pods are used as vegetable. Green cowpea seeds are boiled, canned or frozen. Dry mature seeds are also suitable for boiling and canning. Dried seeds contain protein and carbohydrates. Environmental Requirements The cowpeas are the easiest of the plants in the bean family to grow. They do well in the harshest of climates and require very little rainfall. Cowpeas can grow under rainfall ranging from 400 to 700 mm per year. The plants have a great tolerance to water logging. Well-distributed rainfall is important for normal growth and development of cowpeas. Cowpeas grow best in warm conditions. The optimum temperature for growth and development is around 20-35 °C. The crop is not tolerant to cold soils. Production altitude varies from sea level to below 2000m above sea level depending on the variety. Cowpeas are grown on a wide range of soils but the crop shows a preference for sandy soils, which tend to be less restrictive on root growth. It is more tolerant to infertile and acid soils than many other crops. Cowpea can grow in a pH range of 5.6 to 6.5. Varieties The growth habits vary from spreading, semi spreading to upright. The dual purpose (leaves and grains for food) are: Kitui black eye, M66 (tolerant to cowpea yellow mosaic virus and scab), Katumani 80 (resistant to aphids; moderately tolerant to thrips, pod borers and leaf hoppers but susceptible to CYMV), Kunde 1, Ken Kunde 3, and KVU 27-1 Grain for food improved varieties can be classified as, Zebra, Randa, KVU-419 (grain for food tolerant to cold and recovers very fast from drought) while the vegetable type are, KVU HB (tolerant to virus diseases), KCP 022 (Drought tolerant), MTW 63″, ICV (Pest tolerant), Ngombe (good for green leaf production, sweet taste of grain). Propagation to Harvesting Cowpea is directly grown from seed. Depending on the purpose for production, it can either be grown as a sole crop or intercrop with cereals such as maize, sorghum or pearl millet. Planting should be done at the onset of rains for rainfed cultivation. The spacing varies depending on the production system. When produced as a green vegetable, they are commonly grown as a monocrop in rows 30 to 40 cm apart with 8 to 12 cm between plants or 60 between the rows and 20-30 cm between plants. Planting depth is 2.5-5 cm depending on the environmental condition. Deeper planting is recommended the drier areas. Cowpea fungal diseases include Leaf spot and Scab Powdery mildew. The most common virus disease on cowpeas is cowpea aphid-borne mosaic potyvirus. It is transmitted by aphids. They cause irregular light and dark green mosaic patterns on the leaves. Plants may be stunted and fail to produce normal pods. The commonest crop pests are, African bollworm Flower thrips Pollen and blister beetle, and Pod sucking Bugs. The pests and diseases can be controlled by planting resistant varieties, using healthy disease-free seeds rather than saving seed from a crop that could be infected and practicing crop rotation with non-legumes (e.g. cereals). Cowpeas can be harvested using the following systems: uprooting the entire plant at the 3-5 true leaf stage before the leaves become too mature and fibrous or dual-purpose production. Harvesting cowpea at 7-days interval gives higher vegetable yield while high grain yield is obtained when no leaf harvesting is done. Cowpeas leaves are a good source of minerals, including iron, calcium, phosphorus and zinc. Levels of vitamin C, total carotene, and free and total folacin are 410mg, 57mg, 334 meg and 2012 meg, respectively, per 100g of solids. Freshly harvested leaves cooked by a traditional Kenyan technique retains 88% of their crude protein and minerals. Farmers should be advised to identify their markets as early as possible, rather than waiting until after harvest. Post harvested losses can also be minimized by drying and storing the cowpea leaves. When all these measures are put to place cowpea production and harvest will increase substantially. Paul Okoth is an African Liberty Writing Fellow with African Liberty. He is also the local coordinator at Students For Liberty Kenya, an organization which aims towards a freer future. He can be reached on Twitter via @OKOTHPAL and on Linkedln. 
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5 Comments
Hello okoth
I hope you are doing well
Thank you so much for this report!
Keep writing
Green cheers
Regards
Walter
Posted 28-03-2020 12:19
Hello Okoth
Thanks for the participation in the monthly event.
Green Cheers :)
Posted 17-06-2019 16:11
Thank you for finding my report useful
Posted 26-05-2019 13:21
Thank you for your participation in the monthly event!
Posted 24-05-2019 07:56
Thank you for this post it gave many common ideas regarding peas to me.
Posted 24-05-2019 00:22