VALUE CHAIN #

Cowpea

Importance

Cowpea’s high protein content, its adaptability to different types of soil and inter-cropping systems, its resistance to drought, and its ability to improve soil fertility and prevent erosion, makes it an important economic crop in many developing regions. The sale of the stems and leaves as animal feed during the dry season also provides a vital income for farmers.

Consumption

All parts of the cowpea crop are used as all are rich in nutrients and fibre. In Africa humans consume the young leaves, immature pods, immature seeds, and the mature dried seeds. The stems, leaves, and vines serve as animal feed and are often stored for use during the dry season. Fifty-two percent of Africa’s production is used for food, 13% as animal feed, 10% for seeds, 9% for other uses, and 16% is wasted.

Regional preferences occur for the different seed size, colour texture of seed coat. For example, Ghanaians are willing to pay a premium for black-eyed peas, while Cameroonians would lower their prices for them.

More than 4 million tons of peas of all sorts are consumed worldwide, with 387,000 tons consumed in Africa.

Disease Incidence and Constraints

The cowpea plant is attacked by pests during every stage of its life cycle. Aphids extract juice from its leaves and stems while the crop is still a seedling and also spread the cowpea mosaic virus. Flower trips feast on it during flowering, pod borers attack its pods during pod growth, and bruchid weevils attack the post harvested seeds. The plants are also attacked by diseases caused by fungi, bacteria and viruses. Parasitic weeds—Striga and Alectra—choke the plants growth at all stages and nematodes prevent the roots from absorbing nutrients and water from the soil.

Most cowpea crops are rain fed and although it is drought tolerant, cowpea farmers in the dry savannah areas of sub-Saharan Africa obtain low yields, estimated at about 350 kg per hectare.

Furthermore, scientists of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA have developed high yielding varieties that are early or medium maturing and have consumer-preferred traits such as large seeds, seed coat texture and colour. A number of the varieties have resistance to some of the major diseases, pests, nematodes, and parasitic weeds. They are also well-adapted to sole or intercropping.

The Improved varieties according to IITA have been released to 68 countries in all of the world’s regions. In addition, IITA’s Farmer Field School (FFS) projects, in collaboration with partners, have trained farmers in improved pest management practices of cowpea crops.

The IITA gene bank holds the world’s largest and most diverse collection of cowpeas, with 15,122 unique samples from 88 countries, representing 70% of African cultivars and nearly half of the global diversity. https://agronigeria.com.ng/cowpea-production-in-nigeria/

Threshing

The pods of cowpea can be manually threshed by beating with a stick when harvested pods spread in the sun are well-dried. The seeds are breakable as such the threshing should be light, just to break the pods. The pods can also be broken by fingers to remove the seeds, if the quantity is little.

Sorting

Seed quality is a determinant of good crop establishment, growth and development. Thus, care at all levels of operations; from harvesting, threshing and post-harvest handling to keep the seeds free of infection by pests and diseases is necessary. Sorting is crucial to remove defective and broken grains, stones, waste and infected seeds from healthy ones. It is in the interest of the seed dealers to get clean seed from seed farmers so that they get better pay.

Grading

The highly nutritious cowpea seed is grown for fresh, processed, and dried uses. Thus, healthy leaf and high quality seed is required for consumption and marketing. Grading can be done by removing infested, diseased and broken seeds and leaves. Shrivelled seeds are also eliminated.

Packaging

The seeds should be packaged in bags and placed into an electrical dryer or spread on a slab under the sun to ensure that the moisture content of the seed is reduced to the desired level of 12 % or less. Thus: cowpeas should be packed in suitable packages which must be clean, sound, and free from insect, fungal infestation and the packing material shall be of good grade and quality. Cowpeas can be packed in containers which will safeguard the hygienic, nutritional, technological and organoleptic qualities of the products. The containers, including packaging material, should be made of substances which are safe and suitable for their intended use. They shall not impart any toxic substance or undesirable odour or flavour to the product. Each package shall contain cowpeas of the same type and of the same grade designation. If cowpeas are presented in bags, the bags shall also be free of pests and contaminants. Each package shall be securely closed and sealed. For long period storage of cowpea, the Purdue Improved Crops Storage (PICS) bags should be introduced. The bag reduces loss of cowpea grain to insect infestation.

http://www.ehinga.org/eng/articles/cowpeas/post-harvest_management

List of Cowpea Companies

RUHOYA LOGISTICS COMPANY LIMITED 

cashew nuts, cowpeas, chickpeas, peanuts from tanzania,.

Address: Njiro, Arusha, Tanzania

ProExpeditors 

Eas African Pigeon peas, Beans, Maize, Cashew nuts, Ground Nuts, Cowpeas, Yellow Gram.

Address: No.5/6 Plot No.25A, Andavar Nagar, Ramapuram Chennai Tamil Nadu 600 089 India

PARTINVEST,LTD 

export several type seeds for agriculture, namelly yellou and white maize, beans, cowpeas, groundnuts, millet, sorghum, buy gray portland cement i,42.5, en197 and many commodities.

Address: katiavala,126-B, Luanda, Luanda, Angola

Indomada Impex 

Cowpeas, Lima Beans, Peanuts, Wood.

Address: 34, Bajaj Road Mumbai Maharashtra Madagascar

Pan World Business Link 

market for cowpeas,

Address:Kenya

QINGDAO COSEAL INTERNATIONAL TRADE CO., LTD 

kidney beans (white/black/red/yellow/light speckled), green lentils, green mung, cowpeas.

Address: yanan 3 road, qingdao, shandong, China

Nanjing Bonagro Intl Trading Co., Ltd. 

Pulses and beans, seeds grains, dried fruit nuts, spice chinese herbal, snack food, Pulses & Beans, red kidney bean, white bean, speckled bean, black bean, broad bean, green mung bean, Lentils, cowpeas, Adsuki bean, chickpeas, coffee bean, Seeds kernels, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, watermelon ….

Address: Rm1308A, No.186-1, Jiangdong Middle Road

W SCHANNER 

Soybean meal, Soybean flour, Cowpeas, Gelatinized corn flour, Crude soybean oil, Glycerin, Timber, Food grade product,.

Address: Rua Londrina, 319

TIANJIN AOK IMPORT AND EXPORT TRADE CO., LTD. 

chinese red kidney beans, light speckled kidney beans, mung beans, white kidney beans (japanese type), dark red kidney beans (english type), cowpeas, bird food, kernels, black eye beans, lentils, chick peas,.

Address: NO.98 HUANGHAI ROAD, TEDA, TIANJIN, TIANJIN, China

TR Imports and Exports 

PP Bags, Sugar Beans, White Beans, Beans, Cowpeas, Maize Meal, Sugar, Wheat, Brown/White Bread Flour, WOVEN PP BAGS, Cooking Oils, Palm Oil, Paraffin, Batteries, Tinned/Canned Goods, Salt, Milk Powders, Coffee, Catering Equipment, Icumsa Sugar 45/500,

Address: Benoni

Braim enterprise 

White Cowpeas,

Cob cliff Investments 

sesame seed, fresh pineapples, cowpeas,

Address: Deall, Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe

SHENSUNG TRADING COMPANY 

bean, black eyed peas, cowpeas, acorns, nut, black eyed beans.

Address: 203 bunji Mapyeong-dong Yongin-si Cheoin-gu Gyeonggi-do 449928 Korea

Dasmesh Kheti Sewa Kender 

Paddy Seeds, Basmati Seeds, Maize Seeds, Bajra Seeds, Jawar Seeds, Wheat Seeds, Barley Seeds, Oats Seeds, Musturd Seeds, Barseem seeds, Green Gram, Cowpeas, Guar seed, RABI FIELD CROPS, FODDER RABI.

Address: FOCAL POINT, D-43

Click here for more details http://www.companiess.com/cowpeas_product.html

 

Cowpea peeling and flour milling plant

Cowpea peeling and flour milling plant can process cowpea by cleaning, peeling, milling and packaging. Cowpea peeling and flour milling plant consists of cowpea cleaning machine, cowpea peeling machine, cowpea milling machine and cowpea packaging machine. From cowpea peeling and flour milling plant, we can get peeled cowpea kernels, cowpea grits and cowpea flour.

 

Cowpea peeling and flour milling plant working process:

• Bean cleaning section: it adopts two screening sections, two destoning sections, one magnetic separation section, and removes the big, small and light impurities, pebbles and magnetic material from the beans to ensure the quality of the end products.
• Bean color sorting section: it adopts the color sorter to separate the moldy kernels, shriveled beans and foreign species of beans according to the color and luster feature of the beans.
• Bean peeling section: it adopts peeling, brushing and shunting technology (it can utilize the segregation valve to choose peeling and brushing according to the material character.)
• Peling: it can peel the bean bran and separate and collect it by effective aspiration system;
• Brushing: it can separate the micro bran and dust which adheres to the material surface.
• Grading section: it adopts different screens and classify the material into different grades according to the size.
• Bean kernel making and grits milling section: it adopts the technology of three peeling sections, one grits making section, grading and suspension.
• Peeling section: it can peel the bean bran and separate and collect it by effective aspiration system and produce whole peeled kernels;
• Bean grits making section: it uses fine bean grits machine and mill beans into bean grits;
• Bean kernels and bean grits grading section: it adopts different screens and classifies bean kernels or bean grits into different grades according to the size.
• Suspension: it separates bean bran by utilizing airflow according to different material gravity.
• Bean flour milling section: it adopts the technology of burdening, several processes of grinding and screening and grading.
• Burdening: it can mix different material according to different requirements for different products；
• Grinding: it can grind or mill the beans into fine bean flour by the professional bean grinder;
• Screening: it separates the bean flour. Soy flour and grits enhance the nutrition and texture of products. Available in a variety of granulations, soy flour and grits have multiple uses, including extending the freshness and shelf-life of many foods.
• Measuring and packaging section: storage can reduce the amount of labour used. Measuring can be artificial or electronic.

 

Cowpea peeling and flour milling plant technical parameter

 

 

Type	Power (kw)	Power Consumption(kw/h)	Capacity(t/24h)	Workshop Dimension(l*w*h/m)
10t	24	38-40	10	10*4*4 (steel structure)
20t	56	38-40	20	16*5*5 (steel structure)
30t	72	38-40	30	20*5*5 (steel structure)
50t	119	38-40	50	20*5*7 (steel structure)
100t	238	38-40	100	30*5*7 (steel structure)

 

http://www.grain-processing.org/PRODUCTS/Bean-Processing-Equipment/715.html

 

Transport

For some markets, the cowpeas must be harvested at higher moisture, such as 18 %, and trucked directly from the field to the processor and do not require specialised transportation for seed, however, it could be necessary for the leaf market to avoid wilting.

 

MARKETING

For the cowpea seed market, seed quality is vital, so care in harvest and post-harvest handling may be important to avoid cracked or split seed. Cowpea leaves are sold in South Africa, Ghana, Mali, Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. http://www.arc.agric.za/arcgci/Fact%20Sheets%20Library/Cowpea%20%20Production%20guidelines%20for%20cowpea.pdf