About the Alliance

The Alliance for Cowpea Improvement in Africa (ACIA) is an Africa-focused agricultural research partnership embracing the many challenges and opportunities of cowpea production and consumption. ACIA has assembled a “cowpea dream team” to overcome the obstacles to cowpea production that are limiting the crop’s potential contribution to African diets and economies. 

ACIA’s first priority is to respond to farmer and consumer demands for local cowpea varieties that can resist two common pests that dramatically reduce harvests and food supplies, and can currently only be controlled with expensive insecticides that carry environmental and food safety risks. Many of the scientists involved in the Alliance contributed to the development of pod-borer resistant (PBR) cowpea varieties that have been approved for use in Nigeria and Ghana. PBR cowpea is popular with local farmers, but they are eager for a combined solution that also addresses cowpea weevils.

This rapid progress is enabled by a collaborative process in which ACIA members consult with one another as a partnership of equals and draw on their diversity of deep expertise, experience and camaraderie to work on many challenges at once. As this partnership progresses, ACIA will also look for guidance from national crop research organizations, community leaders, farmers, local seed producers, extension agents, food sellers and government officials. The Alliance hopes this work will lead to a host of new opportunities — including more local businesses investing in cowpea seed production, meeting farmer demand for improved varieties, and a more reliable supply of cowpeas flowing from farm to market, so that the crop can play an even bigger part in Africa’s future.