According to Dr Jerry Nboyine of the CSIR-Savanna Agriculture Research Institute (SARI), the rate of cowpea production and the planted area has decreased in Ghana during the last ten years due to pest infestation.
Pest infestation, he claims, has deterred many cowpea farmers from planting the crop in the country, stating that pest infestation has made cowpea farming both unappealing and expensive, leading to many cowpea farmers shifting their priority to other crops.
On the sidelines of a one-day sensitisation workshop organized by the OFAB-Ghana chapter for select workers of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in Accra on April 11, 2022, Dr Jerry Nboyine mentioned this in an interview.
The goal of the workshop was to provide clarity on Ghana’s GM technology operations as well as the state of development on a GM product—Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) cowpea—at the CSIR in Ghana.
Dr Nboyine, a cowpea production expert, noted that when farmers grow cowpea, “they ought to pay a lot of money to buy chemicals to spray” and that “even when they can purchase the chemicals, personnel to spray the chemicals always go against them.
He emphasized that the production costs for cowpea were substantially greater than many other crops due to pests and that many cowpea farmers are now farming maize, speaking on the topic “The narrative so far: stages of development and status of PBR cowpea in Ghana.”
He added that over half of the farmers in several cowpea farmlands he visited in the Savelugu Municipality in the Northern region have ceased planting cowpea.
Farmers in certain localities have completely ceased growing cowpea, according to Dr Nboyine, who described the situation as concerning and urgently needed to be handled.
Cowpea producers quitting the sector to farm other crops, he adds, means the government will have to invest additional money to purchase more cowpea into the country.
Farmers adopting pest-resistant varietals is one method to assist handle the pest invasion on cowpea, he said.
They could no longer use traditional farming techniques to control pests, he explained because cowpea was very prone to pest disease.
Cowpea producers, according to Dr Nboyine, can lose up to 90% of their crops to the pod borer (Maruca vitrata) pest, and typically use pesticides six or seven times throughout the planting season to try to control the damaging insect.
Scientists created the pod borer-resistant (PBR) type to assist combat the Maruca vitrata bug, which damages the crop at all stages of development, according to him.
He indicated that the March insect can no longer destroy the crop because of the PBR cowpea and that the Bacillus thuringiences (Bt) Cowpea also aids to strengthen output.
Dr Nboyine noted that while farmers were keen to get their hands on the Bt cowpea, there were supervisory hurdles to overcome before scientists could give the seeds to farmers for growing.
He expressed the optimism, nonetheless, that if everything goes according to plan, the Bt cowpea seeds will be released into the environment in the country within the next two years.