Download or read book Genetic Diversity and Screening of Cowpea (vigina Unguiculata L. Walp.) Genotypes for Drought Tolerance in South Africa written by Gabriel Vusanimuzi Nkomo and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A survey was carried out to assess the farmers’ production constraints, traits and preferred cowpea varieties. A semi-structured questionnaire was used in a survey in Buhera District, Zimbabwe, in March and April of 2018. Women farmers dominated the survey as they were 52% of the surveyed population, while men occupied 48% of the total population. All participants concurred that cowpeas were used for domestic consumption. Eighty-three percent of the farmers cited shortage, unavailability, and cost of fertiliser, 16% of the farmers acknowledged that they do not have access to quality seed, and 1% cited labour as the major constraints in cowpea production. Farmers ranked heat (86%), drought (10%), and soil fertility (4%) as the most important abiotic factors. Ninety-one percent of the farmers’ ranked rust as the major disease, while 2% ranked storage rot, 1% ranked anthracnose, and 1% ranked downy mildew. Eighty-one percent of the farmers ranked aphids as the main pests, while 3% ranked thrips, 3% ranked legume borers, and 2% ranked pod borers. Fifty-two percent of the farmers preferred varieties that are resistant to diseases such as rust, whereas 48% were not concerned about diseases. For qualitative traits, 50% of the farmers had no specific colour preference, 32% preferred white colour, 14% brown colour, 3% red colour, and 1% tan colour. Ninety-four percent of interviewed farmers were not concerned about the pod shape, 3% preferred the kidney shape, 2% preferred the spherical shape and 1% preferred the globular shape. Ninety-nine percent of farmers agreed that they needed high yielding varieties per unit area and only 1% were unsure. For quantitative traits such as grain size, pod size, plant height, and head size, the preferences of farmers varied. Forty-four percent of the farmer respondents preferred larger cowpea grains, while 56% were not concerned about the size of the grain. A paltry 2% of the farmers were interested in pod size, while 98% did not regard it as important. Thirteen percent of the farmers were interested in climbing varieties, while 87% considered high grain yield as of the utmost importance.