Cowpeas for Fodder and Grain Production in Afghanistan.

Small-scale crop-livestock farmers in Afghanistan grow cowpea (Vigna unquiculata) for both the fodder and grain. Fodder yield of local varieties is generally low, but little research has been conducted to compare fodder (FYD) and grain (GYD) yields of local and introduced varieties.  Two experiments were conducted to compare FYD and GYD of 14 early-maturing (Experiment 1) and 14 medium-maturing (Experiment 2) cowpea entries introduced from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria with a local variety during 2006 and 2007 at the Poseh-Eshun Agricultural Research Station in Baghlan Province, northern Afghanistan. In Experiment 1, the 2-year average FYD ranged from 6.9 t DM/ha for entry IT93K-4521 to 26.2 t DM/ha for entry IT99K-1122, while GYD ranged from 1.2 t DM/ha for entry IT99K-1122 to 8.1 t DM/ha for entry Syrian. The FYD of entries IT99K-529-1 and IT93K-4521, and GYD of entries Syrian, IT3K-452-1 and IT96D-610 were greater (P<0.05) than the local variety. In Experiment 2, the 2-year average FYD ranged from 4.9 t DM/ha for entry IT98K-111-1 to 15.8 t DM/ha for entry IT98K-128-3, whilst the GYD ranged from 2.8 t DM/ha in entry IT98K-205-9 to 6.5 t DM/ha for the local variety. Eight entries had FYD greater (P<0.05) than the local, but none of the introduced entries had GYD greater than the local. Entries with potential for fodder and grain production in Baghlan Province and similar environments included: early-maturing entries Syrian, IT93K-452-1, IT96D-610, IT97K-568-18, IT98K-589-2, IT98K-506-1, and IT00K-898-5 and IT98K-205-8; and medium-maturing entries IT00K-901, IT98K-205-15, IT97K-499-35, IT97-556-4 and IT97-1069-6. Further research is needed to test the performance of the promising varieties on farmers’ field.