Scientists developing beans variety to fight post harvest pests, insects

Worried about the rate of damage recorded after harvesting cowpea (beans) especially damage caused by weevils, scientists are reportedly developing a beans variety that would be resistant to weevil attacks.

This is coming after scientists have developed a beans variety, Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) Cowpea which resist the deadly attacks of Maruca Vitrata which damages beans on the field.

Dr Rose Gidado, the Country Coordinator of Open Forum on Agriculture Biotechnology (OFAB) while speaking to the Nigerian Tribune, said there were also plans to develop the brown PBR cowpea soon.

“The plan to get another variety has started, to add more genes so that the insects don’t grow resistance on time, already, approval has been be given for the Confined Field Trial a new gene into the cowpea, to strengthen the gene, so it is going to have more advantage over this very one that has been released.

“Another variety (brown beans) will also be developed, it is in the pipeline. Another thing is weevils, the post harvest challenge, the PBR cowpea takes care of farm, but during post harvest period, what happens? You know beans, you can’t store it for long period without any preservative added to it and that is why people put snipers on it to take care of the weevils, so something is being done, already it has started, a variety of beans would be developed to be resistant to weevil during storage.

“So, scientists don’t sleep, research is ongoing, you don’t wait for a problem to emanate before you begin to look for solutions, you go ahead, you work, scientists always work ahead of time, I think all those are in process”, She said.

On the stage of commercialisation of the PBR cowpea, Dr Gidado said the seed certification of the cowpea variety was ongoing, and would be preceded by seed multiplication which will now land in the hands of farmers for cultivation.

“What is currently happening is seed certification that’s the next stage by the National Agricultural Seed Council because once the seed certification is done, then seed multiplication will follow to such a level that it will be available to all farmers.

“Seed multiplication will be done by both Institute for Agriculture Research (IAR) and the local seed companies that we have that have all it takes to the seeds just to ensure that whatever the farmers will get at the end will get those quality seeds because some other people can always come up with adulteration and market them as Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) just to discourage the farmers because they will plant and won’t get the desired result.

“That’s why we really have to take measures, keep on monitoring, the stewardship plan that have now been put in place to help follow up and help the farmers with good farm management practices because the technology cannot just work on it’s own, we know something is there to prevent pest attack, but there is another thing, it is not automatic ticket to productivity but you have to do good farm management practices”, she noted.

She said there were plans to engage the farmers in training as they plant the PBR cowpea through extension workers who would be trained specifically on how to handle the new beans variety.

“We are actually having plans in place, because once these seeds start going out, we need to begin to go to the fields where the farmers are, and we need to also establish contact with the extension workers. The farmers and the extension workers are always together and the farmers understand their language better, they can talk in the local language.

“So, we have to start working closely with the extension workers, but I think first of all we have to identify those extension workers, bring them close, trains them, tell them things about GMOs and how to handle those GM seeds, to plant, maintain, tell them the advantages, the expectations.

“So, we have to first of all get those extension workers, train them, build their capacity so that they would do their jobs well with the farmers, so that the farmers will realise those expected output. So we really have to go out this time around”, Dr Gidado added.