- Bean/Cowpea
- INTSORMIL: International Sorghum and Millet program
- INTSORMIL/Horn of Africa
- INTSORMIL/Niger Program
- IPM Integrated Pest Management
- Peanut
- SANREM
- The Purdue-led International
Sorghum and Millet (INTSORMIL)/Niger program organized a West Africa Regional
Workshop on Hybrid Seed in Niamey, Niger which drew 43 regional scientists.
This workshop, co-sponsored by the Niger Institut National de Recherches
Agronomiques (INRAN) and the International Crops Research Institute for
the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), was funded with support from the McKnight
and Rockefeller Foundations.
The Purdue component of the Bean/Cowpea CRSP recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in Harare, Zimbabwe to foster the dissemination of CRSP-developed cowpea technologies in southern and eastern Africa. Memoranda of Understanding have been signed with the Institut d’Economie Rural in Mali and INRAN in Niger to expand collaboration in those countries.
Faculty members in Food Science and Foods and Nutrition continue important research in association with the Bean/Cowpea CRSP. Studies focusing on the use of beans as a weaning food have shown that fermenting the beans reduces the oligosaccharide levels, which will reduce problems of flatulence and discomfort for small children. The effect of various processing steps on the vitamin content (B6 and folate) of fermented beans is being studied, and a weaning food made of corn and fermented beans will be tested in Central America where corn and beans are dietary staples.
The Purdue component of the Peanut CRSP has made considerable progress in studies on the health effects of peanut consumption. Recent studies with collaborators in Ghana have shown that peanut consumption suppresses hunger and promotes diets that reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Related studies showed that peanuts in a healthful diet result in a significant reduction in blood fat and do not promote weight gain.
More than 200 individuals from industry and government attended the Third Annual Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Regional Workshop for Central America in October 1998. The workshop, which focused on IPM research in the non-traditional export crop sector, was organized by Purdue IPM CRSP collaborators and met in Guatemala City.
The Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management (SANREM) CRSP Principal Investigator continues to work with scientists in the Philippines to integrate a set of biophysical and economic findings from previous and ongoing research in the Lantapan watershed. The goal is to create a computer-based decision-support tool for natural resources management and planning.
Purdue plays a major leadership role in the InterCRSP natural resources management (NRM) project. The InterCRSP has the goal of extending CRSP-generated NRM technology across West Africa.
A Purdue-organized CRSP Symposium was a highlight of the national meeting of the American Society of Agronomy in Baltimore in October 1998.