A two-day stakeholders meeting for cowpea sector operators aimed at upscaling the crop’s production and its value chain in the three northern regions was held at Nyankpala-Tamale in the Northern Region.

The meeting, the ‘Innovation Platform’, discussed challenges associated with the sector and the varieties of cowpea that consumers prefer and those that researchers need to come out with, among other issues associated with expanding cowpea production. It attracted researchers, farmers, agricultural extension agents, processors, inputs dealers, consumers, and marketers drawn from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.

The meeting formed part implementing the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Cowpea Project being carried out by the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-SARI), International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and the Seed Producers Association of Ghana.

Dr. Ibrahim Atokple, the Country Coordinator of the (USAID) Cowpea Project, said previously researchers did not interact with farmers before coming out with new crop varieties, and this negatively affected the performance of crops.

He said it is against this backdrop that the meeting was organised to learn the challenges of all stakeholders within the crop's value chain.

Dr. Atokple explained that the innovation platform will be formed in the communities where cowpea is produced in the three northern regions to upscale production; adding that a strategy was adopted to transfer varieties of cowpea to farmers, in addition to good agronomic practices for cowpea production and a minimum-spray technology to increase production.

Dr. Stephen Nutsugah, the Director of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Institute (CSIR)-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), said there is a lot of potential within the cowpea value chain, and urged stakeholders to work hard to improve the sector.

He said CSIR-SARI is working on a number of cowpea varieties and will soon invite the Varietal Release Committee to assess them to pave the way for their release for cultivation.

Mr. Tony Akpene Klu, the Communications Manager at CSIR-SARI, said his organisation is striving to improve its communication and information dissemination activities among its stakeholders, especially farmers in the three northern regions to improve agricultural production.