The Tropical Legumes Project is a cross-continental research and development initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. High on both nutrients and commercial potential, legumes hold great promise for fighting hunger, increasing income and improving soil fertility. However, legumes thus far have not received the scientific or funding attention needed to increase smallholder farmers’ yields in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, enhance their food security and reduce poverty.
The Tropical Legumes Project was officially launched in September 2007 in Rustenburg Kloof, South Africa, and in Arusha, Tanzania. Tropical Legumes involves 14 African and Asian national agricultural research programmes in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
The Project has two prongs: Tropical Legumes I (TLI) and Tropical Legumes II (TLII).
TLI focuses on sub-Saharan Africa and four legumes, and is led by the Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) of the Consultative Group on Agricultural Research (CGIAR), in collaboration with partners from national research programmes, universities and CGIAR centres. The four TLI legumes are beans, cowpeas, groundnuts and chickpeas.
The second prong (TLII) focuses on farmer-participatory varietal selection, developing new drought-tolerant varieties and establishing sustainable seed production and distribution systems primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, thus paving the way for the research results from TLI to translate into breeding materials for the ultimate benefit of resource-poor farmers. In addition to the four legumes (mentioned above), TLII also works on soybeans and pigeonpeas. TLII is led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), and works with the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and national programme partners involving public sector, private sector and non-governmental organisations.
- Press release announcing launch of the Tropical Legumes Project (October 2007)