Nigeria Country Plan Baseline and Varietal Monitoring Survey

Summary

The development and dissemination of improved crop varieties is the primary pathway through which technological change in the agricultural sector can bring about productivity gains. Despite substantial investment in breeding that led to the development and dissemination of more than 30 improved cowpea varieties in Nigeria, adoption rates of improved varieties have not been well documented. The Nigeria Baseline Study project was designed to fill this gap. This report documents the adoption of improved cowpea varieties using two approaches: (i) a traditional survey approach in which information was directly elicited from farmers, and (ii) a DNA fingerprinting approach which helps to accurately identify the cowpea varieties.