Cowpea cultivation is widespread in West Africa where it is an important source of protein. This study is aimed at determining the effects of water deficit applied at different stages of cowpea development on yield and its components (pod number, seed number, seed yield, aerial biomass yield, harvest index and root biomass of the plant). The experiments were carried out in pots during the rainy season of 2016 under natural conditions of illumination, temperature and relative humidity. Three water regimes were applied to plants at different stages of cowpea development: total suspension of watering at flowering phase (43 days after sowing) (S1); suspension of watering at the beginning of pod formation on the 46th day after sowing (S2); and normal watering as control until harvest (S0). At the water regime level, yield components had higher values in S0 followed by S2. The lowest values were obtained at S1 level. The root to aerial biomass ratios was higher under water deficit than in the control. In conditions of water deficiency, Suvita2, IT96D-610, and ISV128 genotypes gave the highest seed yields and Tiligré the lowest yield. The harvest index showed a genotypic variation according to the water regime. Suvita2 and ISV128 gave the best harvest index in all water regimes. This study may have contributed to the selection of genotypes adapted to drought.

This work evaluated a collection of hundred groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) varieties from different origin using twenty four (24) agro-morphological traits that can help to enhance selection efficiency in crop improvement. The experiment was carried out at the experimental station of INRAN-Tarna, in the region of Maradi (Niger) during the rainy season of 2010. Analysis of variance showed a large variability among varieties for the agro-morphological traits. Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) and Fisher Discriminant Analysis (FDA) revealed that this variability is structured into four distinct groups. Groups I and II consisted of early varieties that have a high emergence rate and high pods and seed weight. These groups included mainly local varieties and those introduced in Niger through seed dissemination. Groups III and IV are composed of late varieties with large pods while group III had mostly varieties with long leaflets. Understanding the genetic control of the most discriminating among the studied traits would bring significant contribution to the genetic improvement of this important crop.

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and phenotype diversity of Salmonella isolated from poultry offal in Niger. Methodology and Results: A total of 155 poultries offal consisting of gizzard, liver and spleen were analyzed according to ISO 6579: 2002. Based on these different analyzes, high prevalence of Salmonella from 20% to 69% was found. Serotyping showed the predominance of Derby 42.37% followed by S. Hato 15.25%, S. Chester 10.17%, S. Agona 5.08%, S. Suberu and S. Essen 3.39% each, S. Hessarek and S. Kissangani 1.69% each. Isolated Salmonella strains showed low resistance to antibiotics. Conclusion and perspective: Poultry offal for human consumption has high concentration of Salmonella. This is due to poor hygienic practices of poultry sellers. From these facts, awareness and training measures are necessary. Niger authorities must also build modern slaughterhouses and poultry markets in order to reduce the risk infectious proliferation of diseases such as gastroenteritis and food poisoning.

Groundnut is a crop that can be grown under varied production conditions (in intercropping or rotation with cereals). In Niger, the production of groundnut is decreasing over the year due to drought and low soil nutrients. In this work, an agro-morphological evaluation of five groundnut genotypes (55-437, ICG12697, ICG4750, JL24 and ICG8751) under water deficit was carried out in order to identify the best performing genotypes for seed and forage production. Intermittent water deficit was imposed from the 53 rd day after sowing, which was the beginning of pod filling. The other plants were well watered until harvest. The results showed that in water stress conditions all yield parameters (pod number, pod weight, seed number, seed weight, harvest index and pod filling rate) and vegetative parameters (aerial biomass and height) with the exception of the number of branches decreased. The principal component analysis revealed that genotypes with a good harvest index and high pod filling rate have good seed yield. Therefore, harvest index and filling rate can be used for the selection of genotypes under water stress conditions. The genotypes 55-437, ICG4750 and ICG12697 proved to be the best performers under water stress and well-watered conditions. These ones accumulate vegetative biomass as proportionate way to the production and filling of the seeds in contrast to JL24 and ICG8751, which tend to accumulate vegetative biomass to the detriment of the production and filling of pods.

Okra has significant area under cultivation in Africa and Asia, despite it has been considered as a minor crop and not much attention has been given to okra improvement in international research program. Niger produced during 2008, 2794 t of okra in 5288 ha with mean productivity of 0.39 t.ha-1. This poor average productivity is far below than the mean productivity of East Africa (6.2 t.ha-1) and North (8.8 t.ha-1). Non-availability of varieties resistant to local biotic stresses is one of the major reasons for such a low productivity. Root-knot nematode disease is one of the constraints of commercial okra cultivation in region and cause of poor productivity. Durable host plant resistance/tolerance is considered as better option than the management tactic solely based on insecticide spray alone. The major objective of this study initited by AVRDC is to screening okra germplasm against root knot nematode in order to identify resistant lines. A total of 48 lines belonging to two species (A. esculentus and A. caillei) originated from different countries were screened following the protocol developed during this study. The results showed that after five weeks of inoculation, infestation of nematode is very fatal for susceptible okra genotypes. Cluster analysis using various parameters revealed that groups GI, GV and GII represented lines which are showing less gall index and poor reproduction rate of nematode, whereas GIII and GIV represented lines with more gall index with higher reproduction rate. The lines showing reaction towards resistance can be used in the breeding program.