Towards Appraising the Impact of Legume Research

• Research into the adoption of improved legume varieties provides evidence that farmers are now growing these in many developing countries and regions. • There has been large-scale adoption of improved chickpea varieties in southern India and small-scale adoption in the Horn of Africa. Specifically, there has been a shift in cultivated area from north to south/central India that is attributed to the availability of improved short-duration chickpea varieties. The share of cultivated chickpea area in two major chickpeagrowing states in relation to the total chickpea area in India has increased from 0.99% and 4.70% in 1966–68 to 7.27% and 15.33% in 2008–10 for Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, respectively. • In Africa, more improved bean varieties have been released than any other legume. This is mostly due to the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA), a highly effective regional research network, of which CGIAR is a key member. To date, more than 3 million farmers are using improved bean varieties in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). • Three-quarters of African cowpea is produced in just two countries in West Africa, Niger and Nigeria, and recent expert opinion surveys indicate that approximately 39% of the 3.8 million hectares (Mha) of cowpea area in Nigeria and 17% of the 5.2 Mha of cowpea are planted with improved varieties. • Recent surveys have found pockets of adoption of improved pigeonpea varieties in East and Southern Africa, and expert opinion shows that large-scale adoption (more than 65% of total cultivated pigeonpea area) has occurred in four major pigeonpea-growing states of south and central India (Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh). • Despite this evidence, there remain many constraints to farmers adopting new legume varieties, including weak seed systems. Relatively little is known about the poverty, natural resource, nutritional or gender impacts of the adoption of improved legume varieties.