Comprehension: Cowpea Against Hunger

Title: Cowpea Against Hunger

Text: New Oxford Secondary English Course for SS1 pages 49-50

A long neglected crop with the potential to halt hunger for millions in Africa, sustain livestock revolution underway in developing countries, rejuvenate nutrient-sapped soils, even feed astronauts on extended space missions is the cowpea.

The cowpea, which is also known as the black-eyed pea, is one of the world’s oldest crops. It is currently cultivated on tem million hectares mainly in Central and West Africa but also in India, Australia, North America and parts of Europe. Cowpea are treasured for their protein content, leaves and stalks that serve as especially nutritous fodder for cows (hence the name cowpea) and other farm animals, and the fact that their roots provide nitrogen to depleted soils.

For many in Africa, the crop is a critical source of food during the lean period – the end of the wet season when food can become extremely scarce in semi-arid regions of the sub-Saharan Africa.

The many qualities of cowpea are being discovered anew for a number of reasons. One is the potential of cowpea’s high protein content to help satisfy dietary requirements in food-challenged developing countries, particaularly in Africa, where over 200 million people remain undernourished.

Cowpeas provide strong yields, even in hot dry conditions, and scientists are developing even more resilient varieties. And if climate change turns up the ehat in sub-Saharan Africa, there is a growing concern that production of current staples such as maize and rice will fall or even collapse in some areas requiring so-called “climate-ready crops” like cowpea to fill the void.

In addition, cowpeas can be used as cheap, high-quality animal feed. The cowpea is also well-known for its ability to infuse soil with nitrogen, which again makes it a crop that could be enormously valuable to Africa where many farmers struggle with nutrient-poor soils that are among the most challenging in the world.

Even the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is on the cowpea bandwagon. With the plant’s ability to produce nutritious leaves in only 30 days, NASA scientists are considering sending cowpeas to the international space station, where they could be cultivated to provide food for astronauts.

(This Day September 28, 2010, page 40)