CGIAR

A Global Agricultural Research Partnership

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Happy International Day of Biodiversity

Join us on a journey to find out more about work we are doing to promote the use and conservation of agricultural and forest biodiversity. Bioversity International celebrates smallholder farmers who are using and conserving vital biodiversity around th…

Publications

Restriction of transpiration rate under high vapour pressure deficit and non-limiting water …

Drought stress is a major constraint on cowpea productivity, since the crop is grown under warm conditions on sandy soils having low water-holding capacity. For enhanced performance of crops facing terminal drought stress, like cowpea, water-saving strategies are crucial. In this work, the growth and transpiration rate (TR) of 40 cowpea genotypes with contrasting response to terminal drought were measured under well-watered conditions across different vapour pressure deficits (VPD) to investigate whether tolerant and sensitive genotypes differ in their control of leaf water loss. A method is presented to indirectly assess TR through canopy temperature (CT) and the index of [...]