Objectives, Activities and Background

• Objectives
• Activities
• Background
  
  

Objectives 1 to 4 aim to improve productivity for groundnut, cowpea, common beans and chickpeas. Objective 5 is to develop cross-species resources for comparative biology in tropical crop legumes, and also incorporates, in Phase II, data management and 3) project management. The rationale for combining such activities is that they each cut
across the four crop Objectives and provide support towards effective implementation of their respective Activities.

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Activities
Overall activities across crop objectives are:

Germplasm characterisation
Development of genomic resources
Marker validation and molecular breeding for biotic and abiotic stresses
Cross-cutting activities

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How will project objectives be achieved?   

Background
For many of the world’s poorest people, legumes are the major—and sometimes only—sources of protein and fat they consume. Grain and forage legumes account for 27% of the world's primary crop production, with grain legumes alone contributing 33% of the dietary protein nitrogen needs of humans (Vance et al 2000). Grain legumes are also a rich source of essential vitamins, minerals, and important amino acids like lysine (Grusak 2002), and so legumes are key components in the diets of resource-poor people in the developing world, especially those who cannot afford to supplement their diets with meat. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where hunger and malnutrition threaten the lives of an estimated 11 million people, consumption of legumes is higher than anywhere else in the world, except for North and South America. India is the world’s largest producer of chickpea—two-thirds of the global chickpea production in 2005-2007—and its largest world consumer as well. As a result, India’s dependence on imports to meet its domestic demand continues to increase. Legumes also generally attract higher market prices than other staple crops, making them an important source of income for farmers. Legumes can be grown by farming in impoverished soils (legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen and enrich depleted soils), and in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia (SA) are commonly used in mixed cropping systems. The seed industries in most countries have not developed their own legume seed production programmes and in spite of their importance, the breeding of food legumes has received less attention than cereals. As a result, especially SSA countries lack seeds of varieties for different seasons and different cropping systems (see FAO paper for more.)

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