Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T05:06:18.699Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Evaluation of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) germplasm lines for tolerance to drought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2012

Christian A. Fatokun*
Affiliation:
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Oyo Road, PMB 5320, Ibadan, Nigeria
Ousmane Boukar
Affiliation:
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Oyo Road, PMB 5320, Ibadan, Nigeria
Satoru Muranaka
Affiliation:
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Oyo Road, PMB 5320, Ibadan, Nigeria
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Cowpea is an important grain legume crop in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where, on a worldwide basis, the bulk is produced and consumed. The dry savanna area of SSA is where cowpea is mostly grown under rain-fed conditions. The crop is therefore prone to drought which may occur early, mid and/or late in the cropping season. Compared with many other crops, cowpea is drought tolerant, even though drought is still a major constraint limiting its productivity in SSA. Increasing the level of drought tolerance in existing cowpea varieties grown by farmers would enable them to obtain more and stable yield from their cowpea fields. As a first step towards enhancing drought tolerance in existing cowpea varieties, 1288 lines were selected randomly from cowpea germplasm collections maintained at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, and evaluated for their drought tolerance at Ibadan. Drought was imposed by withdrawal of irrigation from 5 weeks after sowing. On average, drought reduced the number of days to flower by 12 d, and the mean grain yield per plant was also reduced by 67.28%. A few of the cowpea lines stayed green for up to 6 weeks after irrigation was stopped, even though some of these produced no pods when the study was terminated. Further evaluation in the screenhouse of 142 selected drought-tolerant lines helped to identify six lines that could be potential parents for developing breeding lines with enhanced drought tolerance.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © NIAB 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agbicodo, E, Fatokun, C, Muranaka, S, van der Linden, G and Visser, R (2008a) Phenotyping Cowpea Recombinant Inbred Lines (RILs) for Drought Tolerance at Flowering Stage. Poster Presentation. The Netherlands: University of Wageningen.Google Scholar
Agbicodo, E, Fatokun, C, Muranaka, S, van der Linden, G and Visser, R (2008b) Breeding drought tolerant cowpea: constraints, accomplishments and future prospects. Euphytica 167: 353370.Google Scholar
Belko, N, Zaman-Allah, M, Cisse, N, Diop, NN, Zombre, G, Ehlers, JD and Vadez, V (2012) Lower soil moisture threshold for transpiration decline under water deficit correlates with lower canopy conductance and higher transpiration efficiency in drought-tolerant cowpea. Functional Plant Biology 39: 306322.Google Scholar
Borrell, AK and Douglas, ACL (1996) Maintaining green leaf area in grain sorghum increases yield in a water limited environment. In: (eds) Proceedings of the Third Australian Sorghum Conference. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Agricultural Science (Occasional Publication no. 93).Google Scholar
Ewansiha, SU and Singh, BB (2006) Relative drought tolerance of important herbaceous legumes and cereals in the moist and semi-arid regions of West Africa. Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment 4: 188190.Google Scholar
Gwathmey, CO and Hall, AE (1992) Adaptation to midseason drought of cowpea genotypes with contrasting senescence traits. Crop Science 32: 773778.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, AE (2004) Breeding for adaptation to drought and heat in cowpea. European Journal of Agronomy 21: 447454.Google Scholar
Hall, AE, Thiaw, S, Ismael, AM and Ehlers, JD (1997) Water-use efficiency and drought adaptation in cowpea. In: (eds) Advances in Cowpea Research. (Co-publication of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)). Ibadan: IITA, pp. 8798.Google Scholar
Hall, AE, Cisse, N, Thiaw, S, Elawad, HOA, Ehlers, JD, Ismail, AM, Fery, RL, Roberts, PA, Kitch, LW, Murdock, LL, Boukar, O, Phillips, RD and McWatters, KH (2003) Development of cowpea cultivars and germplasm by the bean/cowpea CRSP. Field Crops Research 82: 103134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenow, DT, Quisenberry, JE, Wendt, CW and Clark, LE (1983) Drought tolerant sorghum and cotton. Agricultural Water Management 7: 207222.Google Scholar
Schackel, KA and Hall, AE (1979) Reversible leaf movement in relation to drought adaptation of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.). Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 6: 265276.Google Scholar
Singh, BB, Mai-Kodomi, Y and Terao, T (1999) A simple screening method for drought tolerance in cowpea. Indian Journal of Genetics 59: 211220.Google Scholar
The World Development Report (2008) Productivity in African agriculture. Oslo, 28 February, pp. 25.Google Scholar
Thorogood, D, Humphreys, M, Turner, L and Laroche, S (1999) QTL analysis of chlorophyll breakdown in Lolium perenne. In: Abstracts of Plant and Animal Genome VII Conference. Town and Country Hotel, San Diego, January 17–21, 1999, p. 280.Google Scholar
Turk, KJ, Hall, AE and Asbell, CW (1980) Drought adaptation of cowpea. I. Influence of drought on yield. Agronomy Journal 72: 413420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Oosterom, EJ, Jayachandran, R and Bidinger, FR (1996) Diallel analysis of the stay-green trait and its components in sorghum. Crop Science 36: 549555.Google Scholar
Watanabe, I, Hakoyama, S, Terao, T and Singh, BB (1997) Evaluation methods for drought tolerance of cowpea. In: (eds) Advances in Cowpea Research. (Co-publication of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)). Ibadan: IITA, pp. 141146.Google Scholar
Ziska, LH, Hall, AE and Hoover, RM (1985) Irrigation management methods for reducing water use of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) and lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus L.) while maintaining seed yield at maximum levels. Irrigation Science 6: 223239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Image

Fatokun Supplementary Material

Figure S1

Download Fatokun Supplementary Material(Image)
Image 405.1 KB
Supplementary material: Image

Fatokun Supplementary Material

Figure S2

Download Fatokun Supplementary Material(Image)
Image 97 KB
Supplementary material: Image

Fatokun Supplementary Material

Figure S3

Download Fatokun Supplementary Material(Image)
Image 394.3 KB
Supplementary material: Image

Fatokun Supplementary Material

Figure S4

Download Fatokun Supplementary Material(Image)
Image 238.2 KB
Supplementary material: File

Fatokun Supplementary Material

Table S1

Download Fatokun Supplementary Material(File)
File 1.7 MB
Supplementary material: File

Fatokun Supplementary Material

Table S2

Download Fatokun Supplementary Material(File)
File 156.7 KB