Establishment of field trials in the Southern and northern Guinea Savannas of Nigeria. Monitoring of crop performance by smallholder farmers around the trial sites. Use of field data to validate predictive models for legume technology dissemination

Abstract

Trials were conducted under near-optimal conditions (moisture and nutrients non-limiting) via researcher managed conditions across various locations and sowing dates in rainy and dry season of 2016. Minimum data sets (MDS) for calibration of the models were collected across all locations. Phenological variables collected includes; number of days to first and full flower, first and full podding and physiological maturity. Yield data collected includes: number of pods per plant & meter square; pod weight per plot, number of seeds per pod, pod yield per hectare, seed yield per hectare, tops weight at harvest, pod yield per hectare and seed yield per hectare. Ten common cowpea varieties and seven common soybean varieties were planted as treatments in an RCBD with 3 replications.