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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Ruth Meinzen-Dick

Ruth Meinzen-Dick is a Senior Research Fellow in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit. She has extensive transdisciplinary research experience in using qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her work focuses on two broad (and sometimes interrelated) areas: how institutions affect how people manage natural resources, and the role of gender in development processes. 

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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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experts

Development Strategies and Governance

Adetunji Fasoranti

Monitoring & Evaluation Officer

Bio

Adetunji Fasoranti is a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for the Nigeria Strategy Support Program (NSSP), based in Abuja, Nigeria. Adetunji’s handles complicated monitoring and evaluations issues across donor-funded projects and has competencies in conducting field interviews and analyzing agricultural inputs and state-level policies.

Prior to joining IFPRI, Adetunji worked as a Project Assistant at the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), and then as an M Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist. He also served as an Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for Chemonics International Inc. Adetunji received a master’s degree in Development Studies from the Nigeria Defence Academy in Kaduna, Nigeria.

Nigeria Strategy Support Program

Development Strategies and Governance

Publications

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Report

Impact evaluation of the use of PBR cowpea in Nigeria: Baseline report

2024Andam, Kwaw S.; Amare, Mulubhran; Zambrano, Patrica; Bamiwuye, Temilolu; Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Fasoranti, Adetunji; Edeh, Hyacinth; Chambers, Judith
Details

Impact evaluation of the use of PBR cowpea in Nigeria: Baseline report

Nigeria is the largest consumer and producer of cowpea in Africa. Produced predominantly by smallholder farmers, cowpea is relied on by millions of Nigerians and is one of their main sources of affordable protein. Despite cowpea’s economic relevance (Nwagboso et al. 2024; Phillip et al. 2019), cowpea yields in Nigeria have barely grown over the last 20 years. One of the main abiotic constraints of the crop is the pod-borer insect (Maruca vitrata), which can cause damages of up to 80 percent. Given that conventional breeding has not been successful in addressing this constraint, local and international efforts over the last decades focused on developing a pod-borer-resistant (PBR) cowpea. The culmination of these efforts in Nigeria was the commercial release of the PBR cowpea variety SAMPEA-20T in late 2019. This is a significant milestone, as it was the first transgenic food crop to be approved for cultivation in Nigeria. In its programming under the “Feed the Future Innovative Maize and Cowpea Technologies to Increase Food and Nutrition Security in Africa” activity, implemented by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) aims for an adoption rate of PBR cowpea in Nigeria of 25 percent by 2025, with yield gains of 20 percent and accompanying reductions in pesticide applications. The International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS) is leading a five-year (2021–2026) impact evaluation (IE) project, funded by USAID. The study goal is to generate causal evidence of the use of the PBR cowpea variety and its consequential household and farm impacts and associated value chain effects. In a collaboration with IFPRI’s Nigeria Country Office, PBS is leading and coordinating the overall study while the IFPRI-Nigeria Country Office designs and implements the quantitative and qualitative approaches to the evaluation. IFPRI has worked with technology developers, the AATF and its partners (including private local seed companies), to ensure access to necessary data and cooperation by the evaluation team, while maintaining the team’s independence. To ensure such required independence, the evaluation team has separated the cooperation in implementing the evaluation (including distributing inputs) from the data analysis. The evaluation team will continue to maintain its independence in the methodological approach and the analysis of the results from the implemented randomized controlled trial (RCT), adhering to international standards.

Year published

2024

Authors

Andam, Kwaw S.; Amare, Mulubhran; Zambrano, Patrica; Bamiwuye, Temilolu; Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Fasoranti, Adetunji; Edeh, Hyacinth; Chambers, Judith

Citation

Andam, Kwaw S.; Amare, Mulubhran; Zambrano, Patrica; Bamiwuye, Temilolu; Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Fasoranti, Adetunji; Edeh, Hyacinth; and Chambers, Judith. 2024. Impact evaluation of the use of PBR cowpea in Nigeria: Baseline report. NSSP Project Report: June 2024. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/145074

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Western Africa; Africa; Cowpeas; Smallholders; Nutrition; Yields; Pests; Transgenic Plants; Value Chains; Impact Assessment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Report

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Working Paper

The economic importance of cowpea in Nigeria trends and Implications for achieving agri-food system transformation

2024Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Andam, Kwaw S.; Amare, Mulubrhan; Bamiwuye, Temilolu; Fasoranti, Adetunji
Details

The economic importance of cowpea in Nigeria trends and Implications for achieving agri-food system transformation

Nigeria is the largest producer of cowpea in the world and one of the highest consumers. This paper documents the challenges in cowpea production and consumption, export, and import trends in Nigeria. The critical and comparative review reveals several important insights. Cowpea is important for households and communities due to its substantial contributions to food security, nutrition, and revenue production. It plays a pivotal role in supporting various stakeholders involved in the value chain, including producers, processors, traders, and food vendors. Thus, cowpea is a crucial multipurpose crop. Although Nigeria is the largest producer of cowpea in the world, with a total production of 3.6 million tons in 2021, the demand for cowpea surpasses its supply due to factors such as the country’s large population and low productivity. We describe the main challenges encountered in Nigeria’s cowpea production, encompassing a range of issues such as high susceptibility to pests and diseases from planting to storage phases, low adoption of improved cowpea seed varieties, poor soil fertility, drought, and heat stress. The data suggest that low input use, low-yield varieties, and low productivity characterize the current level of cowpea production. Our findings suggest the need for tailored strategies to support the adoption of improved cowpea varieties in Nigeria to increase domestic production, adherence to quality standards, exploration of international markets for export opportunities, and ultimately, household income and improve nutritional outcomes.

Year published

2024

Authors

Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Andam, Kwaw S.; Amare, Mulubrhan; Bamiwuye, Temilolu; Fasoranti, Adetunji

Citation

Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Andam, Kwaw S.; Amare, Mulubrhan; Bamiwuye, Temilolu; and Fasoranti, Adetunji. 2024. The economic importance of cowpea in Nigeria trends and Implications for achieving agri-food system transformation. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2241. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139672

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Agrifood Systems; Cowpeas; Value Chains; Households; Exports; Imports

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Working Paper

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Brief

Seed certification and maize, rice, and cowpea productivity in Nigeria

2023
Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Abdoulaye, Tahirou; Andam, Kwaw S.; Edeh, Hyacinth; Fasoranti, Adetunji; Haile, Beliyou; Kumar, P. Lava; Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Ragasa, Catherine; Spielman, David J.
…more Wossen, Tesfamichael
Details

Seed certification and maize, rice, and cowpea productivity in Nigeria

Despite the potential importance of seed quality to agricultural productivity growth, many governments in sub-Saharan Africa lack the capacity to expand quality assurance systems even where there is expressed interest. This brief summarizes the key insights from a recent study in Nigeria. The evidence points toward the benefits of pursuing balanced, flexible seed quality assurance systems rather than focusing singularly on expanding rigorous seed certification systems, as the country has done until recently. These recommendations are based on findings from the 2010–2018 period in Nigeria: Increased supply of certified seeds of maize, rice, and cowpea had positive effects on farm-level use of certified seeds, yields, and output, but these effects diminished as certified seed supply continued to expand. Moreover, yield gains from certified seeds tend to vary considerably across locations. As certified seed becomes more available to farmers, its use spreads from higher-return farms to lower-return farms, diminishing overall productivity benefits. These results are consistent with the view that singularly expanding rigorous seed certification faces diminishing returns. More balanced, pluralistic systems that also allow for moderate quality assurance, such as quality declared seed (QDS), may be worth trying in Nigeria.

Year published

2023

Authors

Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Abdoulaye, Tahirou; Andam, Kwaw S.; Edeh, Hyacinth; Fasoranti, Adetunji; Haile, Beliyou; Kumar, P. Lava; Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Ragasa, Catherine; Spielman, David J.; Wossen, Tesfamichael

Citation

Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Abdoulaye, Tahirou; Andam, Kwaw S.; Edeh, Hyacinth; Fasoranti, Adetunji; Haile, Beliyou; et al. 2023. Seed certification and maize, rice, and cowpea productivity in Nigeria. Seed Equal Policy Brief December 2023. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137014

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Seed Certification; Maize; Rice; Cowpeas; Agricultural Production; Supply; Yields; Farmers

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137014 Source record

Project

Seed Equal

Record type

Brief

Research

Topics/Countries