Mekonnen Tesfaye Walle, Gerrano Abe Shegro, Mbuma Ntombokulunga Wedy, Labuschagne Maryke Tine
Department of Plant Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9301, South Africa.
Agricultural Research Council-Vegetable, Industrial and Medicinal Plants, Pretoria 0001, South Africa.
Plants (Basel). 2022 Jun 15;11(12):1583. doi: 10.3390/plants11121583.
Currently, the world population is increasing, and humanity is facing food and nutritional scarcity. Climate change and variability are a major threat to global food and nutritional security, reducing crop productivity in the tropical and subtropical regions of the globe. Cowpea has the potential to make a significant contribution to global food and nutritional security. In addition, it can be part of a sustainable food system, being a genetic resource for future crop improvement, contributing to resilience and improving agricultural sustainability under climate change conditions. In malnutrition prone regions of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, cowpea has become a strategic dryland legume crop for addressing food insecurity and malnutrition. Therefore, this review aims to assess the contribution of cowpea to SSA countries as a climate-resilient crop and the existing production challenges and perspectives. Cowpea leaves and immature pods are rich in diverse nutrients, with high levels of protein, vitamins, macro and micronutrients, minerals, fiber, and carbohydrates compared to its grain. In addition, cowpea is truly a multifunctional crop for maintaining good health and for reducing non-communicable human diseases. However, as a leafy vegetable, cowpea has not been researched and promoted sufficiently because it has not been promoted as a food security crop due to its low yield potential, susceptibility to biotic and abiotic stresses, quality assurance issues, policy regulation, and cultural beliefs (it is considered a livestock feed). The development of superior cowpea as a leafy vegetable can be approached in different ways, such as conventional breeding and gene stacking, speed breeding, mutation breeding, space breeding, demand-led breeding, a pan-omics approach, and local government policies. The successful breeding of cowpea genotypes that are high-yielding with a good nutritional value as well as having resistance to biotics and tolerant to abiotic stress could also be used to address food security and malnutrition-related challenges in sub-Saharan Africa.
当前，世界人口不断增长，人类正面临粮食和营养短缺问题。气候变化和气候变率是全球粮食和营养安全的重大威胁，降低了全球热带和亚热带地区的作物生产力。豇豆有潜力为全球粮食和营养安全做出重大贡献。此外，它可以成为可持续粮食系统的一部分，作为未来作物改良的遗传资源，有助于增强适应力并在气候变化条件下提高农业可持续性。在撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）国家营养不良高发地区，豇豆已成为解决粮食不安全和营养不良问题的战略性旱地豆类作物。因此，本综述旨在评估豇豆作为一种气候适应型作物对SSA国家的贡献以及现有的生产挑战和前景。与豇豆籽粒相比，其叶片和未成熟豆荚富含多种营养成分，蛋白质、维生素、常量和微量营养素、矿物质、纤维及碳水化合物含量都很高。此外，豇豆确实是一种多功能作物，有助于维持身体健康并减少人类非传染性疾病。然而，作为一种叶菜类蔬菜，豇豆尚未得到充分研究和推广，因为由于其产量潜力低、易受生物和非生物胁迫、质量保证问题、政策法规以及文化观念（它被视为牲畜饲料）等原因，它未被作为粮食安全作物加以推广。可以通过不同方式来培育优良的豇豆叶菜品种，如常规育种和基因叠加、快速育种、诱变育种、太空育种、需求导向育种、全基因组学方法以及地方政府政策等。成功培育出高产、具有良好营养价值且抗生物胁迫和耐非生物胁迫的豇豆基因型，也可用于应对撒哈拉以南非洲地区与粮食安全和营养不良相关的挑战。
