Achievements
Increased Awareness Building national capacity for pigeonpea research : more scientists and increased focus
Capacity Building National
programs have reaped their biggest rewards from the project's training courses. For
example, between 1992 and 1997, the number of scientist-years spent on pigeonpea research
in the 10 member countries increased from 2.1 to 10.6 (Fig. 1). The project has sponsored
four scientists from Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda for PhD degrees. Seventeen
technicians - Kenya (4), Malawi (3), Uganda (3), Tanzania (2), Mozambique, Namibia, Sudan,
Swaziland, Realizing that the key to the crop's expansion lay in promoting more diverse forms of utilization, especially as split peas (dhal), the project organized several training courses in India, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda. These courses have helped train over 160 food technologists, manufacturers of processing equipment, and women farmers, such as Josephine Muli, who were interested in small-scale processing. Variety Development Within the short span of 5 years, as many as 21 improved varieties have been developed and three of them have been released (KAT 60/8 and ICPL 87091 in Kenya, and ICP 9145 in Malawi). Project scientists began to use the Kenya transect" to screen short-, medium-, and long-duration lines when they found that unless temperature and daylength are within a specific range, an improved pigenpea variety may fail to produce grain. The transect is a belt of research sites on the Equator (i.e., constant daylength), where temperatures decrease with increase in altitude, from near sea level to 2000 m. The approach resulted in the rapid identification of varieties suitable for different areas in the region. These varieties are now in on-farm verification trials. Improved Production Packages A new technology comprising paired rows of pigeonpea combined with three rows of maize has been developed for intercropping. In on-farm trials, the package increased pigeonpea yields by 55% with no accompanying decline in maize production and at no extra labor cost. The technology, using medium- and long-duration pigeonpea, is being extensively verified on-farm in Kenya and Tanzania. The project through collaboration with NARS has also identified optimal spacings for growing short-duration pigeonpea - a new crop in the region - in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Integrate
d Pest Management Surveys conducted in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda have given valuable information on pigeonpea pest populations. Pod borers, podfly, and pod sucking bugs were identified as important constraints, causing yield losses from 17 to 27%. Pigeonpea bruchid was found to be the major storage pest, as it can cause up to 100% grain yield loss. The project has developed two non-chemical control methods. One is solarization, where pigeonpea pods are covered with a polythene sheet and sun-dried for 6 hours. The other is to mix the dried and crushed leaves of a plant known as Tephrosia vogelii with stored grain. Integrated Disease Management The project has developed effective screening methods for fusarium wilt and cercospora leaf spot. Four wilt-resistant varieties (ICP 9145, ICEAP 00020, ICEAP 00040, and ICEAP 00053) identified using this screening method are now in on-farm trials.
Technology Exchange With the help of farmers, technologies developed by the project have been verified in farmers' fields. As shown in Table 1, several varieties were identified by the NARS and are being tested on-farm. Farmers are already growing some of these varieties in Kenya and Uganda. In Malawi, the project carried out on-farm demonstrations, seed multiplication and supplied seed of ICP 9145; this variety now occupies an estimated 8% of the country's pigeonpea area.
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The project's
catalytic role has led to a perceptible change in the future prospects for pigeonpea;
before 1992, the crop was not given high priority in the region. Today policy-makers are
far more aware of the benefits it can provide and government funding for its research has
increased. For instance, Kenya has identified the crop as the most important grain legume
in dry areas. Malawi is focusing on its grain and soil fertility improvement aspects.
Tan-zania considers it the country's second most important grain legume and Uganda ranks
it as the most important grain legume in its northern region. Such NGOs World Vision, Care
International, and ActionAid, have recently launched several pigeonpea-based development
programs.
and Zambia (1
each) - have undergone intensive training in pigeonpea production and agronomy.
