Groundnut (Arachis hypogaeaL.) improvement in sub-Saharan Africa: a review

Abstract

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a multipurpose legume crop widely cultivated in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, yield levels of the crop has remained relatively low in SSA owing to a range of biotic, abiotic and socioeconomic constraints. A dedicated groundnut improvement programme integrating new tools and methodologies to breed varieties suitable for current and emerging agro-ecologies and market needs is essential for enhanced and sustainable groundnut production in SSA. The objective of this review is to highlight breeding progress, opportunities and challenges on groundnut improvement with regard to cultivar development and deployment in SSA in order to guide future improvement of the crop. The review analysed the role of new tools in breeding such as, high-throughput and automated phenotyping techniques, rapid generation advancement, single seed descent approach, marker-assisted selection, genomic selection, next-generation sequencing, genetic engineering and genome editing for accelerated breeding and cultivar development of groundnut.

Effects of Plant Density and Planting Pattern on Growth and Seed Yield of Groundnuts [Arachis hypogaea (l.)] in the Wet Middleveld of Eswatini

“…Groundnut is also an economically major oilseed crop in tropics and sub-tropical parts of the world. The seed contains 25 to 32% protein (average of 25% digestible protein) and 42 to 52% oil [1,2,3,4]. According to Gulluoglu et al [4], groundnut is the fourth major oilseed crop of the world next to soybean, rapeseed and cotton.…”

Past, Present and Future Perspectives on Groundnut Breeding in Burkina Faso

“…at least two full-time PhD scientists per crop species [54]) ,as well as support in related disciplines important for groundnut improvement, viz. entomology, agronomy, weed science, pathology [54,68]. We contend that it is possible to significantly increase groundnut production and productivity through dedication of a strong local breeding programme, which takes advantage of improved lines from international research institutions and modern breeding approaches, technologies, and tools to develop locally adapted high-yielding varieties with desirable traits.…”

“…In a nutshell, public sector groundnut breeding has not made satisfactory progress in Burkina Faso. As in most sub-Saharan countries; no increase in genetic gain has been recorded in the last 30 years [67,68]. Furthermore, the national breeding programme struggles to keep up with the evolving breeding methods, suffering from a lack of research leadership and insufficient technical expertise [67,69].…”

“…Likewise, the difficulties of plant regeneration by tissue culture techniques and selection of transgenic events [141][142][143] are being overcome by recent advances in groundnut transformation process [144]. To date, at least a dozen of successful groundnut transformations have been reported in the literature [68]. Recently, agrobacterium-mediated transformation and groundnut tissue culture techniques were refined for optimum use, which enabled development of genetically-modified groundnut that was near-immune to aflatoxin contamination [144].…”

“…Estimated gain from genomic selection can be as much as 5-fold that of conventional breeding [168][169][170]. Although uptake of genomics-assisted breeding in Burkina Faso has been extremely low, as in many developing countries [68], due to the lack of human and infrastructure resources [69], nevertheless, opportunity for breeding programmes to embrace genomics-assisted breeding exists, using, where applicable, data available in partner institutions like ICRISAT where historical data on the performance of about 340 advanced breeding lines have been compiled [69].…”