Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage (PICS) Gates Project
June 1, 2007 to May 31, 2011

Funded for $11.4 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - www.gatesfoundation.org

 
The goal of the PICS project is to have 50% of cowpea in West and Central Africa stored with non-chemical hermetic methods by 2011. The project hopes to have activities in 28,000 villages in ten countries: Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tchad, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Mali and Senegal. PICS also works closely with plastics manufacturers and the plastics supply chain to insure that cowpea growers have the right kind of containers for hermetic storage. At Purdue, four departments are involved: Agricultural Economics, Entomology, Food Science, and Youth Development and Agricultural Education. Dr. Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer, Associate Dean and Director of Internatinoal Programs in Agriculture, is the Principal Investigator of the project.

This is primarily an extension effort, with some research components. The main research role for Purdue Agricultural Economics is work on the effectiveness of alternative extension methods (e.g. village demonstrations, farmer-to-farmer, radio and other electronic communications).

Project film

PICS: Improving Cowpea Storage in Niger  

Project news

May 7, 2009 - Niger: The peaks of cowpea storage - Food security for millions, World Vision

June 6, 2007- Gates Foundation funds Purdue effort to protect food, enhance African economy, Purdue University  

Project documents

PICS Technician Training Manual (English)

PICS Technician Training Manual (French)  

Papers

Moussa, B., Otoo, M., Fulton, J., Lowenberg-DeBoer, J. "Evaluating the Effectiveness of Alternative Extension Methods: Triple-Bag Storage of Cowpeas by Small-Scale Farmers in West Africa."  Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association 2009 AAEA & ACCI Joint Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 26-29, 2009.

Posters

Fulton, J., Murdock, L.L., Moussa, B., Stanish, L., Everhart-Valentin, K., & Lowenberg-DeBoer, J. "Applying Research with Extension:  22 Years of Stengthening Cowpea Storage in Africa."  Poster presented at the 25th Annual Conference of the Association for International Agriculture and Extension Education. San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 24-28, 2009. 

Relevant links

Purdue Entomology Cowpea CRSP

USAID Bean/Cowpea CRSP