ABSTRACT
Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) is a versatile food legume widely cultivated in the tropics and subtropics covering over 65 countries. With up to 30% protein in its grain, tender leaves and immature pods, cowpea is consumed in a variety of ways and it has been given indigenous names such as ‘lobia’, ‘chowlee’ and many other names in India; ‘kunde’ in East Africa; ‘beans’ and ‘wake’ in Nigeria; ‘niebe’ in francophone Africa; ‘southern pea’, ‘crowder pea’ and ‘black eye pea’ in the United States; ‘feijão caupe’ in Brazil; and a host of other names in local languages in different countries around the world. Current estimates indicate that it is grown in about 14.5 million hectares with an annual production of over seven million tons on a worldwide basis (Singh, 2014). The important cowpea-growing countries are Nigeria, Niger Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cameroon and Chad in the West and Central Africa; Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique in East and Southern Africa; India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, China and Philippines in Asia, and Brazil, Cuba, Haiti and the West Indies in Central and South America. However, the bulk of cowpea production comes from the drier regions of northern Nigeria (five million ha and 2.9 million tons), Niger Republic (four million ha and 1.5 million tons) and North East Brazil (about 1.9 million ha and 0.8 million tons).
