Cultivar and fertilizer affected the nutritive value and cooking time of dual-purpose cowpea

Dual-purpose cowpea with improved grain and fodder quality has potential to enhance food and nutritional security. The objective of this study was to quantify the nutritive value and cooking time of dual-purpose cowpea cultivars (cv.). The study was conducted in 2021 and 2022, at Bambey, Senegal to evaluate 20 cowpea cultivars and two levels of fertilizer (zero and 9-30-15 kg NPK rates). Cowpea fodder crude protein concentration ranged from 16% with EBC4STR2 to 20% with forage-only cultivar 66-35 F. Cowpea fodder macronutrients K, Mg, and S differed up to 77%, 32%, and 33%, respectively, among cultivars. Grain P, K, Ca, Mg, and S concentrations also varied by up to 24%, 24%, 60%, 30%, and 21% among cultivars. Dual-purpose cultivars had lower Ca and Mg compared with grain-only cultivars. However, grain protein and other macronutrient concentrations in dual-purpose cultivars were similar to the grain-only cultivars. Cowpea grain cooking time ranged from 31 minutes for 66-35 F to 106 minutes for Bambey-21. In conclusion, dual-purpose cultivars, such as E-BC4STR11 and E-BC4STR2 with greater grain and fodder quality and less than an hour of grain cooking time, have the potential to improve productivity, quality, and economic value of cowpea in semi-arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa.