Podborer-resistant Cowpea Poses No Threat to Biodiversity – Scientists

African scientists said that Maruca-resistant cowpea does not constitute a threat to biodiversity. Maruca is a type of podborer causing damage to cowpea production. According to Prof. Mohammed Ishyaku of the Ahmadu Bello University and one of the researchers of the Maruca-resistant cowpea project, Maruca will not be completely extinct from the system when the Maruca-resistant cowpea is commercialized because the technology encourages planting of non-resistant varieties as refuge for the podborer.

In another interview, Prof. Prince Addae of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) also said that Maruca will continue to exist. Addae mentioned that no matter what technology is applied, it would be impossible to completely exterminate a group of organisms. "It is an ecosystem; you cannot destroy one whole group just like that by any technology...The question we have been trying to answer is when there is no cowpea growing, where does Maruca go? They go and hide in some other plants too, so we are trying to find the alternate hosts and what they do there."

For more information, visit http://www.aatf-africa.org/userfiles/CowpeaFAQ.pdf and http://www.nannewsnigeria.com/podborer-resistant-beans-poses-no-threat-biodiversity-%E2%80%93-scientists.