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Genetically Modified Cowpea–A Sustainable Solution To Indiscriminate Application Of Insecticides

By Akayeti Emmenuel || Contributor
Agriculture Genetically Modified Cowpea–A Sustainable Solution To Indiscriminate Application Of Insecticides
OCT 8, 2020 LISTEN

A team of scientists developing Bt Cowpea at CSIR-SARI organised a field day at its confined field trial site in Upper East Region.

This brought to gather 70 farmers from Binduri District and Bawku Municipal as well as 30 other participants made up of Upper East Regional PPRSD and Crops Officers, AEAs from the two Districts, Postgraduate (PhD and MPhill) students and young scientists and staff of CSIR-SARI at Manga Station.

The Principal Investigator (PI) Dr. Jerry Nboyine, stated that, the project is under the sponsorship of African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF).

He took the participants through cowpea production and challenges and how Bt-Cowpea comes as a sustainable solution.

Dr. Nboynie identified cowpea is an important crop in Ghana because it is a cheap source of dietary protein and also as a good source of quality fodder for livestock and provides cash income for farmers. In spite of its importance, grain yields on farmers’ field are low averaging less than 500 kg heactor-1.

This, he said, is mainly due to insect and pests that attack all growth stages of crop.

He, however, identify one important pest that attacks the crop at the flowering and podding stage as the legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata. Attacks by this pest result in between 70 – 80% crop losses depending on the severity of attacks, hence a need to identify sustainable ways of managing this pest which scientists have not been able to develop improved varieties of cowpea that can withstand its attack.

Dr. Jerry, mentioned that Currently, farmers manage damage by this pest by spraying insecticides. The damaging stages of this pest hide in flowers and pods and this makes most insecticides ineffective at controlling it. Also, the use of insecticides has negative effects on the health of the person applying it, if he/she is not wearing proper protective clothing; unfortunately, most farmers in Ghana and Africa do not wear recommended protective clothing before spraying pesticides. In other instances, the residues from the insecticides may drift into nearby water bodies. Animals and human beings who drink from these contaminated water bodies may suffer from pesticide poisonings depending on the concentration.

The PI of the project, Dr. Jerry Nboyine, added that, a sure way to overcome damage by this pest while minimising the negative effects of excessive pesticide use on human health and the environment is to develop varieties of cowpea that can withstand Maruca damage. The CSIR – SARI in partnership with African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) has therefore, developed a new technology to help farmers fight this pests’ and at the same time reduce the use of harmful insecticides on their farms. This new technology involved introducing a trait/character from a fungus called Bacillus therigiensis (Bt) into the cowpea plant. This new trait from the fungus protects the cowpea from being fed on by Maruca; hence, the name Bt cowpea. Already, there are a lot of Bt insecticides that are currently sold on the Ghanaian market; there is therefore no dangers associated with using this fungus to protect cowpea from the pest. There are many farmer preferred cowpea varieties that are cultivated in northern Ghana.

This project is therefore working at introducing the trait that enables the cowpea to withstand Maruca into these commercial varieties. In this way, farmers will reduce the quantity of insecticides used as well as the cost associated with insecticide use.

He added that, one of the advantages of Bt Cowpea is that it offers a backbone for an effective Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program. With Bt-Cowpea only two applications of insecticides are sufficient to control the complex of pod-sucking insects; whereas with the conventional cowpea 5-10 applications are necessary.

Miss Gloria Adazebra a Phd student and Research Scientist (Plant breeder) of the CSIR-SARI explained that, the cowpea varieties they are introgression the (Bt) gens into are already known by the farmers, and those are; Apagbaala Wan-Kai, Padi tuya and Kirkhouse Benga adding that, they seek farmers opinions before arriving at those varieties for the introgression.

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