Vegetable cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) and yard-long bean (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis) are popular legume vegetables. Tender pods of cowpea were used as vegetables as well as seeds as a pulse crop, and yard-long beans were used exclusively for vegetable purposes. Cowpeas are very rich and cheap sources of proteins, vitamins, and minerals and also in micronutrients such as iron and zinc, popularly known as “Poor man’s meat.” Cowpea has a strong symbiotic relationship with Rhizobium and is a farmer friendly crop that improves the soil’s fertility. Cowpeas are cultivated in a wide range of climates in both tropical and subtropical regions in the world. The west or central African regions has the highest genetic diversity and presumed to be the center of origin. Based on the genetic diversity, cowpea was domesticated in West-Central African regions, fodder-type cowpea in India, and yard-long bean in Asian region. In this book chapter, we reviewed different breeding strategies followed in cowpea and yard long bean such germplasm collection, conservation, characterization and utilization through classical and marker-assisted breeding approaches. The studies on marker-assisted selection, such as linkage map construction, QTL identification, fine mapping of QTLs, and identification of candidate genes, were reviewed. We also discussed the application of next-generation sequencing technologies, such as whole-genome sequencing, identification of candidate genes, genome wide markers, and genome-wide association studies, in view of crop improvement strategies in cowpea and yard-long bean.