DOI: https://doi.org/10.36347/sajb.2025.v13i09.006

Pages: 1351-1362

Cowpea is the most widely cultivated legume in West Africa as staple food and income source. However, parasitic weed (Striga gesneroides) remains a major constraint on farmers’ fields leading to significant seasonal losses. Identifying superior genotypes that combine high levels of resistance to Striga with improved agronomic attributes is crucial for commercialization. The objective of this study was to assess a panel of cowpea germplasm and identify superior cowpea genotypes that combines improved agronomic attributes with adequate Striga resistance for recommendation to SSA farmers. One hundred and eighty-eight cowpea accessions assembled from five west African gene banks were evaluated for three seasons using an augmented experimental design. Significant variation was observed (p<0.01) in the performance of the cowpea accessions for all the traits measured. Moderate to high broad-sense heritability was observed for all traits except for pod weight and number of seeds per pod. Striga adaptive traits showed negative correlations with yield related traits. Using the multi-trait genotype-ideotype distance index (MGIDI), 28 superior potential genotypes were identified with improved Striga resistance and agronomic attributes among which 11 have not been realized. These promising genotypes could be explored as progenitors in cowpea improvement programs targeting Striga resistance improvement to develop cowpea genotype with improved levels of resistance to Striga for commercialization in the Sahelian and Savanna regions of Africa.