Research Article

Production Practices, Postharvest Handling, and Quality of Cowpea Seed Used by Farmers in Makueni and Taita Taveta Counties in Kenya

Table 4

Percentage of physical purity components of cowpea seeds obtained from Wote, Makindu and Mwatate in various agroecological zones.

Agro-ecological zonePure seedsOther varietyOther cropsInsect damagedInert matterShrivelled

Farm saved
LM5 (Mwatate)82.1a7.9a1.1a6.7c1.5a1.5a
LM5 (Makindu)79.3a2.0b0.4b15.9b2.1a0.7a
LM4 (Wote)61.6b1.1b0.3b33.6a2.0a1.5a
Mean73.72.80.520.32.01.1
LSD ()17.34.41.016.41.22.1
CV (%)29.8198.3264.8102.880.5241.3

Market sourced
LM5 (Makindu)91.2a0.8a0.3a5.5b1.3b0.9b
LM4 (Wote)90.0a3.7a0.4a4.6b1.1b1.2a
LM5 (Mwatate)80.2b2.3a0.7a13.2a2.3a1.1b
Mean84.72.30.59.61.81.2
LSD ()14.24.50.914.91.00.9
CV (%)19.2219.6195.2177.461.486.3

Means with different letters are significantly different () with Fisher’s multiple range tests. LSD = least significant difference; CV = coefficient of variance; LM4: lower midland zone IV; LM5: lower midland zone V.