Tropical Legumes – II Project Objective 2:

“ENHACING GROUNDNUT PRODUCTIVITY AND PRODUCTION IN 

DROUGHT‐PRONE AREAS OF SUB‐SAHARAN AFRICA AND ASIA ”

By

By

Enhancing Groundnuts Productivity and Production - ESA

Project Components

•  Fast tracking on shelf varieties through Farmer PVS and identify 2 – 3 that can be released in the short term

•  Development of new varieties for ESA taking cognizance of the region’s biotic and abiotic constraints

•  Improve the skills of partners as we work together - foster learning by doing

Needs and Opportunities being harnessed for R&D

•  Breeding thrust is on GRD, ELS and Rust – ICRISAT Malawi presents an excellent natural screening environment

GRD HDP

ELS HDP

Fast tracking on shelf varie2es to iden2fy 2 – 3 for release in the short term 

Country  No of Varie/es 

No of PVS MB yr1 

No of PVS MB yr2 

Malawi  10 & 7  36/120  60/171 

Mozambique  7 & 5  18/72  36/108 

Tanzania  10 & 7  50  64 

Outcome from PVS 

Varieties Recommended for Release: Tanzania (5): ICGV-SM 01711, # 01721, # 99555,and # 99557. Mozambique (3) ICGV-SM 99541, # 99568, and JL 24 ; Malawi (1); ICGV-SM 96714

Seed Produc2on in Support of Seed Systems and 

PVS Fast Track Release    

•  29.8 t breeder seed of 8 varieties • Nuclear seed 10 vars for Tanzania (5-50kg) each • Nuclear seed 55 vars in Malawi (5-10kg) each

• 51 seed banks in Malawi and 30 seed banks in Tanzania each (each with capacity for4tons annually)

Component II: Development of new varieties

Rosette ELS

Rust Drought

New sources of resistance identified

ICG 14705, 13099, ICGV-SM 05701,

ICGV-SM 02536, ICG 14118, 8517, ICGV-SM 06394

ICGV-SM 86021, 02501 92R/70-4, ICGV 94114,

ICGV-SM 00537, 03535, ICG 14390, 14778

Hybridization and Devlp of breeding populations

•  48 New crosses incorporating newly id resistance sources into farmer / market preferred vars initiated

•  2nd BC pops incorporating GRD and ELS into farmer/market vars completed

•  4500 F3 segregating pops incorporating old sources of resistance into farmer/market vars available for phenotyping. Part ↔ RILS TL1

Capacity Building 

•  Germplasm Distribu/on; 

– 22 Sets Regional trials (Mw(6), Tz (4), Mz(12) – 488 breeding lines MW(131), TZ(86), MZ(271) 

•  Technical Capacity – Trained 7 technicians, and 3 scien/sts in in hybridiza/on techniques, use of infector row, and data analysis using genstat  

– Tanzania has ini/ated ac/ve breeding prog with phenotyping facili/es for GRD 

Capacity Building cont

•  Farmer Capacity •  Seed fairs in MW

(500), and TZ (2000) farmers

•  Training in Good Agronomic Practices- GAP 1185 Farmers (686 MW), (378 MZ) and (121 TZ)

•  2000 flyers for variety descriptors and GAP, and 1000 booklets on GAP distributed in MW and TZ

Capacity Building cont

•  Institutional Development with TL1: – Refurbishment of 1 glasshouse,

purchase of fridges for seeds, construction of rain-shelter, Irrigation facility under develp for TZ

– Refurbishment of 2 glasshouses, procurement of one portable weather station, and irrigation pump for MW

Improving Partner skills cont

Challenges and emerging opportunities

•  Slow pace of variety release with some partner NARS. – Release procedures as well as capacity.

Technical capacity building will help

• Most of the durable resistance for GRV only found in long duration – yet short duration holds largest cultivated area – Possibly Marker work can bring

results faster.

Challenges and emerging opportunities cont

•  No absolute resistance to ELS is known in cultivated gnut – just enhanced levels of resistance – This is an area where MARS can play

a useful role when sufficient no of markers for gnuts are found

Challenges and emerging opportunities cont

•  Groundnuts are used as a commercial crop as well as for food & nutrition security. Aflatoxin is a major threat to both

– Smallholder farmers knows little of the dangers posed by aflatoxin

– Traders give no incentives for aflatoxin free nuts

• Need for a value chain approach to determine critical point for intervention and a system for rewarding producers

Challenges and emerging opportunities cont

•  The region is still Lacking suitable vars matching the available LGP – Lack of seed dormancy big problem in

short duration varieties. •  Potential solution

– Need to incorporate resistance to fresh seed dormancy in early varieties

Other Collaborating Projects

•  The BMGF through TL1

•  The McKnight Foundation

•  Treasure Legumes – IFAD Project (Malawi and Tanzania)

THANK YOU