ABSTRACT

Cowpea is an important low-cost protein source for millions of people in West Africa. Although mature seeds are the primary food source, fresh green pods are also consumed to survive food shortages before the harvest of main cereal crops. To increase protein intake from green pod consumption, a visual indicator of pod elongation, namely relative pod length, which enables the nitrogen content of immature seeds to be estimated, was developed. This is a simple visual method to ascertain the optimal time for green pod harvesting and is therefore highly practical for local farmers, the primary consumers of green cowpea pods. The nitrogen content of immature seeds was estimated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. This method was also applied to genetic resources to select cowpea accessions with high nitrogen content in immature seeds.

摘要

pea豆是西非数百万人重要的低成本蛋白质来源。尽管成熟种子是主要的食物来源，但也要消耗新鲜的绿色豆荚，以在主要谷物作物收成之前克服粮食短缺的状况。为了增加绿色豆荚消费的蛋白质摄入量，开发了一种豆荚伸长的视觉指标，即相对豆荚长度，可以估算未成熟种子的氮含量。这是一种简单的视觉方法，可确定收获绿色豆荚的最佳时间，因此对于当地农民（绿色cow豆荚的主要消费者）非常实用。使用傅立叶变换红外光谱法估计未成熟种子的氮含量。该方法还应用于遗传资源，以选择未成熟种子中氮含量高的cow豆种质。