Mapping the cowpea is notoriously time-consuming and difficult. But now production plans of new and improved cowpea varieties can begin to take shape. Continued development and research is a key part of the Farming First plan (read more about our sixth principle, which is to prioritise research initiatives).

Here’s how the researchers did it:

To build the map, the scientists first modified and then applied advanced genetic tools developed from human genome investigations that only recently have been applied to a few major crop plants.

But what exactly is a cowpea genetic map? Here’s an explanation:

The consensus genetic map of cowpea is a dense and detailed roadmap of its genome (a genome is a complete genetic blueprint). The map has approximately 1000 molecular markers throughout the genome. The markers, which are like signposts directing a motorist to a destination, are associated with traits desired for breeding and used to more deliberately design and assemble new superior varieties.

Cowpea is a staple for maize- and rice-based diets in Latin America and drought-prone areas such as Africa and Asia.

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Two veteran Wall Street Journal reporters, Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman, have teamed up to write a book addressing one of the most pressing questions of the 21st-century: global hunger.

The authors ask why hunger persists when the technology and tools already exist to feed the world:

Since the time of the Green Revolution, the world has known how to end famine and tame chronic hunger.  We have the information and tools.  But we haven’t done it.  We explored the heavens.  We wired the world for the Internet…. Yet somehow we haven’t eliminated the most primitive scourge of all.

In the opening chapters, Kilman and Thurow introduce the work of Norman Borlaug, a Nobel Prize-winning plant scientist who died on Saturday at the age of 95.  Back in the 1940s, Borlaug was assigned to a newly launched research centre in Mexico to train Mexican scientists how to boost farm productivity through plant breeding experiments.

Over the next two decades, Borlaug’s research helped boost wheat yields in the research areas almost seven-fold, from 11 bushels per acre in the early 1940s to as much as seventy-five bushels per acre in 1960.  Borlaug then travelled elsewhere in the Americas and across to Asia to demonstrate the potential yields which these new varieties could produce and to convince policymakers and farmers to adopt them to feed their growing populations.  (Apparently, the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ripped up her flower garden to plant the new wheat varieties.)

And thus, the Green Revolution was born.  Demographic projections of mass famine and a population implosion were prevented, and the global supply of food exploded.

Yet around the same time, shifts in global agricultural policy began to shift.  Starting in the early 1980s, newly independent former colonies in Africa and Asia started to see a reversal in the foreign assistance being given to agricultural development (inputs, infrastructure, extension training, and research support).  In addition, the money being targeted at the alleviation of hunger came in the food of foreign-grown food aid shipped into areas of need.

A generation later, in the summer of 2008, the world went through a global food crisis where prices doubled and tripled for many staple foods and global reserve stocks of grain were reduced to dangerously low levels.  Kilman and Thurow argue that the time is right for a broad reinvestment into agriculture, similar to how the United States rallied to support the Marshall Plan for Europe in the aftermath of World War II.

The authors argue that public sentiment is in favour of increased support to feed the hungry, and social and political stability are increasingly under threat from those without sufficient resources to subsist.  They present a range of options, from investment in infrastruture and new seed technologies to policy reforms relating to how national budgets are allocated and how trade regulations are drawn up.

Africa is a particular target as it is seen as “the world’s final frontier of agriculture” where yields are still low and modern agricutural practices are often non-existent.  Coupled with a rapidly increasingly population, African farmers will be expected to double their production by 2030 in order to simply meet their own people’s food demands.  This will be no small feat, and it would require a coordinated, collaborative approach to see it through successfully.

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Two implicit dimensions are rreflected in this report’s title.  Firstly, the world already has many good solutions for reducing world hunger, but they simply need to be scaled up and funded in order to work at a broader level.  Secondly, while many markets are still fragmented and inefficient,these markets are increasingly part of a common globalised economy, in which we all participate.

Two interesting African initiatives highlighted in the report and being funded by DfID are the North-South Transport Corridor and the ‘best bets’ approach to agriculture.

The North-South Transport Corridor is a $1.2 billion project which will upgrade 4,000 kilometres of road and 600 kilometres of rail track.  The goal of the project is to free up bottlenecks in shipping and other transport, especially in parts of eastern and southern Africa.

DfID’s ‘best bets’ for agriculture will see funding going to “the innovations with the greatest potential to lift poor people out of poverty, and to getting these into widespread use.”  AS DfID sees it, these include:

• tackling new pests which attack staple crops, such as virulent wheat rust and cassava viruses.  This will cost £20 million but could help protect almost three billion people who depend on these crops for their food
• breeding drought-resistant maize for Africa.  This will cost up to £60 million but will help 320 millino farmers in Africa who are affected by drought and will indirectly benefit many more likely to be affected by climate change.
• improving the vitamin content of staple crops. To develop these crops and get them into widespread use will cost around £80 million but it has the potential to help improve the nutrition of up to 670 million of the poorest people, many of them children.

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Many development experts are flagging the potential for a global water crisis if better management of our the earth’s water resources is not given more attention.  This includes wider application of existing knowledge as well as further innovation in policy-centred management systems and more funding for crop-related research.

Since the mid-20th century, the global population has roughly doubled while water use has trebled.  When this trend is paired with a shift in dietary choices toward more water-intensive foods (such as meat), the strain on water resources will increase.

The FAO also predicts that under current conditions, the world’s farmers will need 60% more water to feed the almost 9 billion people expected to be living on the earth. Yet, aid for needed projects such as better irrigation systems has been cut in half over the past generation, according to the OECD.

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For example, in India, mustard seeds were planted in September and harvested in late December/January.

But often, up to 30% of the harvest was often lost to frost.

In response, breeders worked on a seed with a shorter duration period, which enabled farmers to harvest in early December, avoiding the issue of frost.

These farmers not only avoided loosing part of their harvest, they also benefited from better prices as they were able to bring their seeds to the market before the usual glut occurred in January. Finally, a shorter cycle allowed farmers to plant wheat in December/January.

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Most plants use less than half of the nitrogen applied to them through fertilizers. Increasing the nitrogen efficiency in a plant allows farmers to use less fertilizer, which in turns reduces the risk of leaching.

Furthermore, unused nitrogen is a major source of GHG emissions as unused nitrogen volatilises in the form of NO2, accounting for 1/3 of the emissions produced by agriculture.

Current research aims to produce plants that can achieve the same yields as conventional plants while using 50% less nitrogen fertilizer.

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Since 1996, the average yield impact across the total global area planted with insect resistant traits over the 11 year period has been +5.7 percent for corn traits (or an added 47 million tonnes of corn) and +11.1 percent for cotton traits (or an added 4.9 million tonnes).

In some countries, the benefits can be much higher, such as in India, where yields from cotton have increased by 54%.

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Pioneer donated initial technologies valued at $4.8 million to help with the project and additional funding has been provided by a grant to Africa Harvest from the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, with a budget of $18.6 million over five years.

Dupont’s technology also allows for the cultivation of sorghum with higher levels of vitamins A and E, micronutrients such as iron and zinc, and essential amino acids such as lysine, while also improving digestibility.

If successful, in the long term, the project could help improve the health of 300 million people in Africa.

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The cowpea is an important source of protein for farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and South America.  Because its grain consists of about 25% protein, it is beneficial to those not able to afford other forms of animal protein.  It is often grown as both a food and cash crop.

The IITA partnered with the Borno State Agricultural Development Project, Kano State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority, Kaduno State Agricultural Development Project, the University of Maiduguri, and the Institute of Agricultural Research – Zaria.

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The crops which result from this R&D are being called the second generation of biotechnology advancements:

The result is a second wave of GM food crops adapted to the needs of poor nations. Emerging nations are turning to gene splicing to boost food supply (not just agribusiness profits) and to protect harvests from the ravages of climate change, pests and pathogens. The new crops are hardier and healthier versions of staple crops.

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