GEVES at the French-speaking meetings on legumes

The 4th French-speaking meetings on legumes was held in Saly, on the north-west coast of Senegal, from 22 to 24 January, with the aim of working together to innovate with temperate and tropical legumes for sustainable agricultural and food systems. 

The seminar was very well organised, chaired by the Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA) and CIRAD, with contributions from INRAE, IRD, Terres Inovia, Terres Univia, and financial support from the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. GEVES took part in the meeting and two posters were presented on the chlorophyll content of green pea varieties for breaker use, and on the amino acid profile of various protein pea varieties.

In an idyllic tropical setting contrasting with the economic and social reality of this region of sub-Saharan Africa, some 150 participants met, nearly half of them from West African countries, researchers, development agents, farmers involved in local groups and cooperatives and auditors. There were around 55 presentations and feedback on experiences, as many posters, and on the final day there was a visit to the CERAAS and ISRA experimental stations, and a tourist trip to Fadiouth, the shellfish island. 

These days provided an opportunity to present a wide range of research and experiments, and to engage in lively debate, full of lessons and messages given the often-limited resources available. Although the focus was on the human food uses of seed legumes rather than their use as fodder, these Senegalese days will be remembered as an opportunity for high-quality exchanges and prospects for collaboration between research, agriculture and crops from the South and the North, where the issue of adaptation to climate change emerged as a thread running through most of the presentations and all of the concerns, an urgently vital issue for the people of Africa, and a premonitory one for our agriculture and lifestyles in southern Europe.