European cowpea landraces for a more sustainable agriculture system and novel foods

Genetic diversity is fundamental to breeding programs and consequently has an important role in obtaining new varieties. To properly use the genetic diversity present in germplasm collections, a good knowledge of the agro-morphological traits of each accession is needed. The aim of this study was to explore the production capacity of 24 cowpea landraces from southern Europe, through phenotypic characterization and evaluation in three different locations in Greece and Portugal.This study was supported by the EUROLEGUME project. This project has received funding from the EU FP7 for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 613781. The authors acknowledge the AUA Laboratory of General and Agricultural Meteorology for the data provided to us and the University of California Riverside cowpea researchers for providing breeding line IT97K-499-35.