Introduction

Groundnuts are predominantly grown in developing countries (Asia and

Africa), where the crop finds the appropriate climates for optimum production.
About 90% of the total world production comes from this region and about 60% of
production comes from the Semi Arid Tropics (SAT). Roughly two-thirds of this is
used for oil, making it one of the important sources of vegetable oil, along that of
soybean, sunflower and palm oil.

Origin and Distribution

The cultivated groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.) is an ancient crop of the New
world, which originated in South America (Southern Bolivia/North West
Argentina region) where it was cultivated as early as 1000 B C. Dissemination of
the crop to Africa, Asia, Europe and the Pacific Islands occurred presumably in the
16th and 17th centuries with the discovery voyages of the Spanish, Portuguese,
British and Dutch. Today, it is grown in areas between 40° South and 40° North of
the equator, where average rainfall is 500-1200mm and mean daily temperature are
higher than 20°C. The groundnut crop is cultivated in 108 countries on about 22.2
million hectares of which 13.9 million hectares are in Asia and the global
production is 29 million tonnes of pods. India, China and the United States are the
leading producers and grow about 70% of the world's groundnuts.

Agronomic Practices

Land Preparation

Good land preparation provides suitable soil conditions for rapid and
uniform germination, good root penetration and growth and steady pod
development. Land should be prepared early before the rains start, so that sowing
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can take place early in the rains. All previous crop residues and weeds should be
completely removed or buried, and seed beds should be smooth to provide good
soil to seed contact after sowing.

Seed Selection

Pods should be shelled 1-2 weeks before sowing and only good quality seed
should be used. It is good practice to purchase certified seed at regular intervals,
preferably, every 2-3 years.

Time of Planting and Soil Moisture

Soil moisture is the most common limiting factor for better yields in
groundnut production. Farmers should plant as soon as there is adequate moisture
in the ground to ensure good germination. Planting early in season helps to
improve yield and seed quality, and reduce incidence of rosette disease.

Spacing

Seeds should be sown at a depth of 5-6cm and recommended spacing

(45×7.5-10cm for bunch type varieties and 45×10-15cm for semi-erect type
varieties). The soil should be pressed down to ensure good contact with the seeds,
enabling them to extract moisture effectively.

Weeding

Groundnut cannot compete effectively with weeds particularly 3-6 weeks

after sowing. Therefore, early removal of weeds is important. Generally, 2-3
weeding are recommended, the first before flowering and at least one other during
pegging. If early weeding is done well, and crop spacing recommendations
followed, and then the weeds that come after are smothered with vigorous growth
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of the crop. Once flowering and pegging begins, it is advisable to weed by hand
pulling, rather than using a hoe as this is likely to disturb any developing pods.

Rotation

To avoid build up of pests and diseases, groundnut should not be grown

continuously on the same land. A rotation of 3 years or longer can reduce disease,
pest and weed problems. Because of the incidence of pests and soil-borne diseases,
groundnut should not be grown after cotton although cotton can be used in rotation
after groundnut. Other legumes, tobacco, tomatoes and certain other vegetables
may cause a build-up of nematodes and soil-borne diseases and therefore, should
be avoided in rotation with groundnuts. Cereals, such as maize, sorghum and millet
are good rotational crops and other clean weeded crops such as cassava, sweet
potato and sunflower can also be used.

Soil Fertility Maintenance

Groundnut is energy rich crop, so it's energy requirement need to be met

with the application of optimum quantities of plant nutrients through application of
manures and fertilizers. Groundnut requires adequate levels of phosphorus,
potassium, magnesium and particularly calcium, which are required for
maximizing yield and good quality seed.

Breeding

Breeding involves selecting desirable types suited to the environmental

conditions and evaluating along with existing varieties, if found superior the
selected strains are released as improved varieties

Breeding brings about the following:

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  High pod yield
 Early maturity
 High shelling percentage with high oil content
 Resistant to tikka, bud necrosis,rust,and virus
 Tolerance to drought and cold
 Erect type plant with dormancy period
Limitations for Quality Breeding in Groundnut

 Quality traits in groundnut are being polygenically controlled. Therefore,

selection for quality traits during the segregating generations is difficult.

 Most of the quality traits in groundnut have low heritability and are
markedly affected by the environment.

 Quality traits in groundnut are difficult to estimate and evaluate. Therefore

breeding for quality imposes considerable demand on resources, including
money.

 Lack of proper techniques of selection for important quality traits

 Transfer of quality traits from wild relatives is difficult

 Transgenic are not commercialized

 Quality being a combination of traits therefore, the various quality traits

have to be assayed and then interpreted to define the groundnut quality.

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 Diseases and their Control

Diseases Symptoms Control

Rossette disease affected plants are characterized by Practice clean cultivation
the appearance of dense clump or Use heavy seed rate and
dwarf shoots with tuft of small rogue out the infected
leaves forming a rossette fashion plants periodically.
Plant exhibit chlorosis and mosaic Spray monocrophos or
mottling methyldemeton at
Infected plants remain stunted and 500ml/ha
produce flowers, but only a few of
the pegs may develop further to nuts
but no seed formation
Groundnut bud necrosis First symptoms are visible 2-6 weeks Adopt plant spacing of
disease after infection as ring spots on 15×15cm
leaves. Remove and destroy
Necrotic spots and irregularly infected plants up to 2-6
shaped lesions develop on leaves and weeks after sowing
petioles.
Stems also exhibit necrotic streaks
Plant becomes stunted with short
internodes and short auxiliary shoots
Leaflets show reduction in size,
distortion of the lamina, mosaic
mottling and general chlorosis.
Drastic reduction in flowering and
seeds produced are abnormally small
and wrinkled with the dark black
lesions on the tests.
Root rot Reddish brown lesions appear on the Treat seeds with thiram or
(Macrophomina stem just above the soil level. carbendazin 2g/kg or
phaseolina) Leaves and branches show drooping, trichodermaviride at
leading to death of the whole plant 4g/kg
Death of plant results in shredding of Spot drench with
bark carbendazin at 0.5g/litres.
Collar rot or seedling Seeds are covered with black masses Crop rotation
blight or crown rot of spores and internal tissues of seed Destruction of plant
(Aspergillus niger and become soft and watery debris
A. pulverulentum) Pathogen attacks emerging young Remove and destroy
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 seedling and cause circular brown previous season's infested
spots on the cotyledons. crop debris in the field
Brown discoloured spots appear on
collar region
Large lesions develop on the stem
below the soil and spread upwards
along the branches causing drooping
of leaves and wilting of plant
Tikka disease or Occurs on all above ground parts of Remove and destroy the
cercospora leaf spots the plant more severely on the leaves infected plant debris
Fungi produce lesions on petiole, Keep weeds under control
stem and pegs Treat seeds with
Quality of yield of nuts are carbendarzin or thiram at
drastically reduced in severe 2g/kg
infection
Lesions caused by fungi coalesce as
infection develops and severely
spotted leaves she'd prematurely
Rust Small broom to chest nut dusty Avoid monoculturing of
(puccinaariachidis) pustules appear on the lower surface groundnut
of leaves Grow moderately
Epidermis ruptures and exposes a resistant varieties
powdery mass of uredespores Spray mancozeb 2kg or
Lower leaves dry and drop wettabe sulphur 3kg or
prematurely in severe infection tridemorph 500ml or
Severe infection leads to production chlorothalonil 2kg/ha
of small and shriveled seeds.

Processing and Marketing of Groundnut

Timing for harvesting

It is very important to harvest groundnut at the correct time. If harvested too

early, the seeds will shrink when drying which lowers the oil content and quality of
the seed. Delay in harvesting will result in poor quality seed due to mould
infections and subsequent aflatoxin contamination of the seeds/ pods.
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Harvesting

The actual method of harvest employed depends upon the type of groundnut
grown. Harvesting by hand is more suitable for the erect groundnut varieties in
sandy, loam soils which are well drained. In bunch types, pod development is
confined to the base of the plane and the pegs carrying the pods into the soil are
thick and strong. Almost all the pods are recovered with the plants when they are
pulled out of the soil. That is why the bunch type of groundnut is mostly harvested
by pulling out the plants with manual labour. When harvesting care should be
taken not to damage egg the pods with the hoe as damage make the pods
susceptible to fungal attack

Cleaning

It is important to shake the plant after lifting to remove excess soil from the
pods, particularly when the soil is wet or heavy. Soil stuck to the pods will
lengthen drying times and produce better condition for the development of
unwanted fungal growth.

Drying

The correct drying or curing of the harvested groundnut is very important as

poor curing can help induce fungal growth (producing aflatoxin contamination)
and reduce seed quality for consumption, marketing and germination for the
following season planting. For good storage and germination, the moisture content
of the pods should be reduced to 6-8%. It is particularly important to note that if
the pods are exposed to the sun for too long the seed quality can deteriorate
considerably and germination can be affected.

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Plucking / stripping

After proper curing and drying, the pods are separated from the plants. This
operation is called stripping or plucking. Stripping of pods is done manually by the
small farmers. Also, groundnuts meant for seed purpose are stripped manually.

Storage

It is best to store groundnuts in their shell. Good drying of the pods to 7-8%
moisture content will help to ensure that the seeds remain in good condition during
storage. Groundnuts can be stored in bags, clay pots and woven baskets.

Shelling

Shelling should be done as and when groundnut seeds are required for
consumption, marketing or for planting as the storage life of the seed outside the
shell is short and the quality can reduce rapidly.

Quality and Marketing

Good growing, harvesting, drying and storage on-farm will ensure that the
pods/seeds are marketable. A buyer will in particular be looking for varietal purity
(at least 95%), low moisture content (7-8%), high shelling percentage (above
55%), low level of damage pods/kernels (less than 17%) and no aflatoxin
contamination.

Economic Importance of Groundnut

 Groundnut, also known as peanut is an important oil, food and feed legume
crop grown in over 100 countries. Over 60% of global groundnut production
is crushed for extraction of oil for edible and industrial uses while 40% is

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 consumed as food and other uses (such as seed for sowing the next season
crop).

 Groundnut oil is an excellent cooking medium because of its high smoking

point

 Cake obtained after extraction of oil is used in animal feed industry in

preparing enriched easily digestible food for children and aged persons, and
as soil amendment.

 Groundnut seed can be consumed raw (non-heated), boiled and roasted and
also used to make connections and it's flour to make baked products.

 The groundnut shells are used for making particle boards or used as fuel or
filler in fertilizer and feed industry.

 Being a legume crop, groundnut helps in improving soil health and fertility
by leaving behind nitrogen and organic matter in the soil.

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References

Abhinandan S. Patil and Mahesh D. Salunke (2014). Breeding for quality traits in
groundnut. Agricultural Research Organisation.

Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations.

Hussaini Y. Ibrahim, Napoleon D. Saingbe, Hassan I. Ibrahim (2010). An

evaluation of groundnut processing by women in a rural area of North
Central Nigeria. Journal of Agricultural Science.

Pasupuleti Janila, S. N. Nigam, Manish K. Pandey, P. Nagesh and Rajeev K.

Varshney (2013). Groundnut improvement: use of genetic and genomic
tools. Frontiers in plant science.

Vinod kumar (2016). Diseases of groundnut. Agricultural Research Organisation.

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