Finding niches for drought tolerant, short-season lablabs  
in semi-arid farming systems of Eastern Africa  
A. Sennhenn1*,  J.J.O. Odhiambo2, D.M.G. Njarui3, B.L. Maass4, A.M. Whitbread1 
 
 
1Georg-August University Goettingen, Crop Production Systems in the Tropics, Germany 
2Department of Soil Science, University of Venda for Science and Technology, Thohoyandou, South Africa  
3Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Katumani, Machakos, Kenya 
4International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Nairobi, Kenya 
1. Introduction 2. Objectives 
 
 
Benefits of the multi-purpose legume - Lablab purpureus To collect key agronomic 
 
 information, including photoperiod 
 Ability to fix atmospheric N [green manure, short-term fallow, …] 
 sensitivity estimates for potential 
 Protein rich grains and healthy vegetable leaf and pod products  short-season lablab varieties.  
 
 High quality animal forage New knowledge to be captured in 
 
 High agro-morphological and physiological diversity crop-soil models (APSIM).  
  Model assisted scenario analysis 
 
BUT: Lack of adequate characterization data for used to devise low risk cropping 
strategies for drought prone 
         short-season lablab varieties   
farming regions.  
3. Materials and methods 3. Materials and methods 
a.   Lablab field evaluation – Limpopo Province South Africa b.  Lablab photoperiod sensitivity evaluation - Germany 
  
  
 Three field evaluations from 2002 to 2008 in Limpopo Province  Growth chamber pot experiment to determine day length x variety 
 Germplasm: 33 lablab accessions  interactions [7 accessions x 4 day lengths x 3 replicates] 
        [Australian Tropical Forage Genetic Resource Centre, (ATFGRC), Australia]  Germplasm: Q6880B, CPI52513, CPI52535, CPI52554, CPI81364, CPI60795, Highworth 
 Objective to select early flowering grain types 
  Day length durations: 10, 12, 14, 16 h @ 28°C 
 Measurements: aboveground biomass production as DM, days to    
 Measurements: time to flowering, dry matter (DM) per pot at 
     flowering, physiological maturity, seed and pod yield  flowering 
4. Results – a. Field evaluation 4. Results – b. Photoperiod sensitivity 
 
 
Table 1: Highest yielding and shortest season accessions from 3 evaluations  120
[time to flowering and physiological maturity in days after planting (DAP),   
aboveground biomass production  as DM, seed  yield and pod number].  100
  
 Flowering  Maturity  DM  Seed yield  No. of pods 
Accession 80
 (DAP) (DAP) (kg ha-1) (kg ha-1) plant -1  
10 h
C Q 3620 63-68 84-99 4734 574-819 18.60  
60 12 h
Q  6880B 43-65 65-102 1359 532-933 12.90  14 h
C PI 52513 52-73 91-99 610 227-1400 29.20  40 16 h
C PI 52514 65-66 101 1857 462-519 24.90  
  20
CPI 52535 65-66 100 1811 52-360 08.90 
C PI 52551 51 102 4068 440 23.20  
 0 * * * * * * * **  
C PI 52552  60-70 88-99 1825 576-1100 18.60  Q 6880B CPI 52513 CPI 52535 CPI 52554 CPI 60795 CPI 81364 Highworth
 
 
C PI 52554 66-73 90-105 4261 382-1900 15.10 Fig. 1: Time till flowering in day after planting evaluated for seven lablab 
C PI 60795 59-65 75-99 4708 571-731 24.60 accessions at different day lengths (10, 12, 14, 16 h) 
 
CPI 81364 50-61 74-102 5002 100-1133 06.60 * indeterminate  
  
 
  
From 33 accessions evaluated, ten were found to be consistently The photoperiod response is highly variable among the evaluated 
early flowering (43 – 70 days after planting), maturing (65 – 102 DAP) lablab germplasm accessions. Whereas Q 6880B and CPI 81364 were 
and high yielding (seed yield: 331 – 1900 kg ha-1) [Table 1; Whitbread consistently early flowering, others flowered under short day 
et al., 2011]. conditions but were indeterminate under long day conditions (Fig. 1).  
5. Conclusions and future perspectives 
 
 
 
 Providing new crop options to farmers in vulnerable areas 
of Eastern Africa is a food security priority. 
 Lablab offers a diverse range of consistently early flowering 
and high yielding varieties; these are known to be more 
drought tolerant than the commonly used grain legumes 
such as beans and cowpeas.  
 On farm testing, consumer acceptance and the Poster presented at the ISFM conference Nairobi, Kenya 2012 
 
development of agronomic packages and crop models will * Contact: Anne.Sennhenn@agr.uni-goettingen.de 
 
 
help to identify niches for short season accessions. Reference: Whitbread et al. (2011). African Journal of  Range & Forage Science, 28: 21-28. 
 
Time till flowering (DAP)