Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] is a multifaceted proteinaceous legume crop laden with resilience to changing climatic conditions. Despite its hardiness and high plasticity, cowpeas have largely been neglected as an orphan crop, not receiving adequate research attention commensurate with its potential. The expanding genetic and genomic resources in the recent past have rekindled the researcher’s interest, and this momentum has to be sustained and channelized for broadening the genetic base and developing smart cowpea varieties. In doing so, the contribution of cowpeas in alleviating food and nutritional security and the outlook towards this crop could be drastically moulded for human betterment. This chapter deliberates on the various constraints in cowpea breeding and the means and resources for overturning the breeding shortcomings. Various aspects related to germplasm resources, genetics, genomics, mutation breeding, speed breeding, pre-breeding, ideotype breeding, biotechnological and modern tools for cowpea breeding are discussed. The perspectives on research priorities encompassing yield and yield attributing traits, resistances to fungal, bacterial and viral diseases, pests, parasitic weeds, nematodes, and tolerance to drought, high temperature, water-logging, salinity including nutritional and antinutritional traits have been revisited. The chapter aims at enlightening comprehensively the breeding aspects of cowpea.