The idea to write and produce this handbook was conceived when Tony Ngalamu, lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Sciences, College of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, in University of Juba won a research award C/5425-1 from International Foundation for Science and Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture to set off AGRA project to breed cowpea for agriculture in South Sudan.

Cowpea, Vigna unguiculata,(L) walp, a multifunctional crop providing food for man and livestock and serving as a valuable dependable revenue generating commodity in many parts of the world, is widely grown by nearly all the small holder subsistence farmers in all ecological zones of South Sudan. Nevertheless, its importance as a major legume in improving the cereal-based diets of the rural population and its role in improving the fertility of the soil remain unknown. Even the word”Cowpea’’is unfamiliar to people in South Sudan, including many agriculturalists.