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a CSIR, Savanna Agricultural Research Institute, Box 52, Tamale, Ghana
b Dep. of Botany and Plant Sciences, Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
* Corresponding author: (padifrancis{at}yahoo.co.uk)
‘Apagbaala’ cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] (Reg. no. CV-219, PI 633739) was developed by the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Tamale, Ghana, and released on 9 May 2003 by the National Varietal Release Committee of Ghana. Apagbaala has high grain yields, is resistant to Striga gesnerioides (Willd.) Vatke, and heat tolerant during reproductive development.
Apagbaala was selected from a three-way cross between IT82E-16, ‘Prima’, and 148-1. IT82E-16 is a red-seeded cultivar developed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria and released for general cultivation in Ghana as ‘Vallenga’. Prima is a heat-tolerant cultivar from Nigeria (Marfo and Hall, 1992). 148-1 is a heat-tolerant line developed by the University of California, Riverside, USA, and has the pedigree Prima/TVu 4552//‘California Blackeye No.5’/7977. IT82E-16 was crossed to Prima and the F1 was then crossed to 148-1. Single seeds of the progeny were advanced in a glasshouse, and in June 1987 the F2 was evaluated at the Imperial Valley Agricultural Field Station (IVAFS), California, USA, which has a average daily minimum and maximum air temperatures during flowering of 24 and 42°C, respectively. Criteria for selection were the number of pods per peduncle, earliness to flower, and white seed coat. Desirable F3 families were evaluated in single row plots in the field at IVAFS in June 1988 under similar temperatures as in 1987. On the basis of number of pods per peduncle, a pedigree row was selected. The F4 to F7 were evaluated under field conditions in Northern Ghana at the SARI main station from 1990 to 1992.
In 1993, Apagbaala was evaluated in replicated yield trials at the SARI main station, Nyankpala as ITxP-148-1, and was included in advanced performance trials from 1994 to 2000 at four sites representative of the various agro-ecologies within Northern Ghana. In these trials, the mean grain yield of Apagbaala was 968 kg ha–1, which was 41% higher than that of the local check, ‘Bengpla’. Apagbaala was about 6 days later in maturing than Bengpla. Nodulation (in terms of nodule dry weight) was 40% higher in Apagbaala than Bengpla under either sole cropping or intercropping with cereals. Apagbaala was less infested by Maruca vitrata Fabricius compared with Bengpla, probably because the pods are held at wide angles from each other on a peduncle in Apagbaala. Reactions of Apagbaala and Bengpla to S. gesnerioides infection were compared by means of Striga seeds collected from farmers' fields across the Sudan savannah zone of Ghana. Apagbaala showed high levels of resistance to the parasite compared with Bengpla.
Farmer-managed comparative agronomic trials were conducted from 1996 to 1999 in 66 farm sites across Northern Ghana. Apagbaala recorded higher grain yields than Bengpla in 74% of the test sites. The average yield of Apagbaala in these trials ranged between 533 and 1200 kg ha–1 and that of Bengpla between 400 and 950 kg ha–1. Results from both researcher-managed and farmer-managed evaluations suggested that the agronomic potential of Apagbaala was mainly attributed to its ability to set a high number of pods under the low soil fertility and high temperature conditions that characterize the predominant cowpea growing regions in Northern Ghana. Apagbaala is recommended for cultivation in the Guinea and Sudan savannah zones of Ghana. Apagbaala has small-sized, dark green leaves that are fairly ovate in shape. It is erect with a determinate growth habit. It is classified as an early maturing cultivar flowering at 39 to 42 d after sowing (DAS) and maturing at 60 to 65 DAS. The flowers are white. The pods are carried well above the canopy and they number an average of 3.5 per peduncle. The dry seeds have a bright very white coat with a small light brown pigment around the hilum. Dry seeds are kidney shaped and have a 100-seed weight of 13 g.
In consumer preference tests, Apagbaala was preferred to Bengpla in cowpea flour-based staple dishes in Northern Ghana. Bengpla was preferred to Apagbaala for whole-grain cowpea dishes within Northern Ghana. Breeder seed of Apagbaala is maintained by SARI, Tamale, Ghana. Small quantities of seed may be obtained from the corresponding author. Plant Variety Protection will not be sought for Apagbaala.
NOTES
Accepted for publication January 31, 2004.
REFERENCES
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  F. K. Padi and J. D. Ehlers Effectiveness of Early Generation Selection in Cowpea for Grain Yield and Agronomic Characteristics in Semiarid West Africa Crop Sci., March 19, 2008; 48(2): 533 - 540. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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