Visual observation of cowpea pod elongation to predict nitrogen accumulation in immature seeds

Cowpea is an important low-cost protein source for millions of people in West Africa. Although mature seeds are the primary food source, fresh green pods are also consumed to survive food shortages before the harvest of main cereal crops. To increase protein intake from green pod consumption, a visu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plant production science 2021-04, Vol.24 (2), p.224-229
Main Authors: Ishikawa, Haruki, Ikazaki, Kenta, Iseki, Kohtaro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cereal crops
Cowpeas
Elongation
Food
Food consumption
Food intake
Food sources
Fourier transforms
Genetic resources
Harvest
Harvesting
immature pod
Infrared spectroscopy
Nitrogen
nitrogen content
pod length
Precipitation
Proteins
Radiation
Seeds
Spectrum analysis
Vigna unguiculata
Visual observation
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Summary:Cowpea is an important low-cost protein source for millions of people in West Africa. Although mature seeds are the primary food source, fresh green pods are also consumed to survive food shortages before the harvest of main cereal crops. To increase protein intake from green pod consumption, a visual indicator of pod elongation, namely relative pod length, which enables the nitrogen content of immature seeds to be estimated, was developed. This is a simple visual method to ascertain the optimal time for green pod harvesting and is therefore highly practical for local farmers, the primary consumers of green cowpea pods. The nitrogen content of immature seeds was estimated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. This method was also applied to genetic resources to select cowpea accessions with high nitrogen content in immature seeds.
ISSN:1343-943X
1349-1008
DOI:10.1080/1343943X.2020.1828949