Sustainable Yield Improvement in Cowpea through Photosynthesis Optimization

Food security in Sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly threatened by climate change and the depletion of natural resources. Consequently, there is an urgent need for strategies that increase agricultural productivity under challenging environmental conditions while addressing the growing risk of undernutrition.

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is a major source of plant-based protein in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although this crop is relatively drought tolerant and can grow on low-fertility soils, its productivity remains too low to ensure adequate nutrition and economic sustainability. The long-term vision of this project is to improve food security and reduce the gap between food and feed production and the increasing demand in Sub-Saharan Africa.

"SCOPE" aims to develop an innovative approach to improve photosynthetic efficiency and yield in cowpea. To achieve this goal, the project will combine strategies to enhance carbon fixation and ultimately increasing the intrinsic grain yield of African cowpea varieties by at least 20%.

The project is coordinated by Fraunhofer IME in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Crops Research Institute (CSIR-CRI) in Ghana and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria. The partners bring complementary expertise in molecular biology, photosynthetic engineering and plant biotechnology (IME), as well as stress-related plant physiology, plant breeding (including the successful selection and commercialization of new varieties) and controlled field trials for optimized plants (CSIR-CRI and IITA). Close cooperation between the partners and Gates Agricultural Innovations will enable the development of improved plant varieties and facilitate access to these varieties for smallholder farmers in the target countries.