Black-eyed peas by Jana Passova

Researchers from the University of Virginia are working really hard to find the way how to increase the lack of black-eyed peas. They cooperate with growers from Africa because they would like to produce the cowpea. Cowpea is kind of an African soybean. It is a tougher type of the legume. This plant is very important protein for diet. African consume not only peas but they can prepare a food from leaves of the plant as well. Their animals eat the stems. Nearly 80 percent of the 3 million tons that are worldwide produced every year come from the west and central part of Africa. One big problem of this plant is that it is highly susceptible. It can be threated by insects, weather or parasitic weeds. There are places where cowpea has completely gone. That's why the cowpea production is reduced. There was developed a project that should stop or minimize these effects. The solution is modern molecular-based technology joined with traditional selective techniques of breeding. All that labour should help the growers from Africa. The genetic structure of cowpea is very similar to soybeans structure, which has been studied for years. So there were strong grounds that researchers could built on. Now the main task is to identify genetic markers that might control drought resistance, nutrition content and parasite immunity. Cowpea is medium-sized bean. There are several types of peas that can remind black eyed peas. The Californian Blackeye is pale-colored with a black spot. Another type, Goat's eye bean, is produced in Northern Mexico.

by Jana Passova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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