Main conclusion Bambara groundnut has the potential to be used to contribute more the climate change ready agriculture. The requirement for nitrogen fixing, stress tolerant legumes is clear, particularly in low input agriculture. However, ensuring that existing negative traits are tackled and demand is stimulated through the development of markets and products still represents a challenge to making greater use of this legume.
Three landraces of bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) were grown as crop stands
in controlled environment glasshouses at the Tropical Crops Research Unit, University of
Nottingham, in 1995. Two soil moisture treatments were imposed: irrigated to 90% field capacity
each week and irrigated to 60% field capacity until establishment (27 days after sowing) with no
further irrigation. Seasonal mean fractional interception varied between 0·20–0·37 for the droughted
treatments and 0·62–0·74 for the irrigated treatments, resulting in cumulative intercepted radiation of
228–350 MJ/m2 and 662–794 MJ/m2, respectively. The maximum total dry matter (DM) produced
was 5·8 t/ha at final harvest (145 days after sowing) with a pod yield of 2·7 t/ha. Under moisture
stress there was little difference in DM production between landraces, with the highest total DM of
1·1 t/ha and a pod yield of 0·05 t/ha, representing a harvest index of 0·05 compared with an average
of 0·46 for the irrigated treatments. The conversion coefficient was reduced from 1·00 under irrigation
to 0·51 g DM/MJ radiation intercepted by soil moisture stress. Two of the landraces showed adaptive
mechanisms to avoid drought; these are discussed in relation to maximizing seasonal radiation
interception.
The need to obtain crop varieties that are tolerant to heat and drought cannot be overemphasised especially with the threat of climate change to agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa. Bambara groundnut has been identified as a drought tolerant crop; however, variations exist among landraces with respect to drought tolerance. An experiment was therefore conducted to evaluate the performance of five bambara groundnut landraces: Black eye, Burkina, NAV 4, NAV Red and Tom, to drought and heat stress, at the Irrigation Company of Upper East Region (ICOUR) at Tono-Navrongo in the Upper East Region of Ghana. The experiment was arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replicates. The heat trial was irrigated once weekly to field capacity until crop maturity. The drought trial was irrigated once weekly until 30 DAS, after which irrigation ceased. Burkina, a landrace from Burkina Faso produced the highest pod yield of 1.2 t/ha under the heat treatment. Tom did not produce any pod yield. Under drought, Burkina exhibited the greatest root dry weight and leaf area at 120 DAS, and had the longest leaf area duration (LAD). Burkina exhibited bunch canopy architecture, while NAV 4, NAV Red, and Black eye had an intermediate canopy type and Tom a spreading type. Burkina proved the most drought and heat tolerant among the five landraces evaluated. Though a drought tolerant crop, temperatures beyond 38°C and low relative humidity can negatively affect pod yield of bambara groundnut even when irrigation is provided. It is important to test the performance of a crop under a new environment before money is invested into its production in that environment.
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