AVEC-BF holds cowpea fair and stakeholders meeting to strengthen cowpea value chain

The Appropriate Varieties of Early maturing Cowpea for the Burkina Faso project (AVEC-BF), collaborating with the Institut de l’Environnement et des Recherches Agricoles in Burkina Faso (INERA) organized a cowpea fair and stakeholders’ meeting in Burkina Faso on 4 June. The convergence aimed to promote interaction among key players and further strengthen the value chain of the crop. The event brought together stakeholders in the cowpea value chain in the country including farmers, seed companies, and marketers.

Two improved cowpea varieties― IT99K-573-2-1 locally known as “Yiisyande” and IT98K-205-8 known locally as “Niizwe” were promoted and displayed during the fair. At a stakeholders’ meeting after the fair, over 98 key players converged to relay milestones and challenges to government agencies as well as AVEC-BF coordinators present. The meeting was also attended by INERA scientists and representatives from the National Seed Service, seed distribution NGOs, cowpea marketers, seed companies, farmers, and a resource person from each of the project target villages.

Haruki Ishikawa, AVEC-BF manager, said the meeting aimed to address the bottlenecks in the production agenda of cowpea producers and establish a better farmer−market linkage that will hopefully eradicate the cowpea demand and supply gap in the country. “By showcasing improved varieties at the fair, stakeholders learn about the benefits of adopting improved varieties. Participants have also been grouped according to their functions in terms of marketing and production. This way, we can better understand and address their peculiar needs”.

Ishikawa further stated that a major milestone accomplished by AVEC-BF is identifying the exact quantity of the crop produced in the region vis-à-vis market demands. This information he said would help government and policymakers in planning and allocating resources such as land to farmers Looking ahead, the project will provide support to resource persons from participating target villages who will be expected to take home what they learned in the meeting and form farmers’ schools where the ideas will be promoted.

The AVEC-BF project is designed to promote packages of improved cowpea management, establish the rapid dissemination of suitable practices with improved varieties, and capture requirements of farmers using farmer participatory selection schemes. It is funded by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).