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

ABSTRACT

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a multi-purpose 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 socio-economic 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.

KEYWORDS:

• Abiotic production constraints
• aflatoxin content
• groundnut breeding
• genotyping
• phenotyping

Acknowledgements

Haramaya University, ICRISAT and the University of KwaZulu-Natal are sincerely acknowledged for the all-round support of the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Seltene Abady is a doctoral student at Haramaya University (Ethiopia) and University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa).

Hussein Shimelis (PhD) is Professor of Plant Breeding and the Deputy Director for African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Pasupuleti Janila (PhD) is a plant breeder at International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), India.

Jacob Mashilo (PhD) is a Crop Scientist at the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, South Africa.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Haramaya University, ICRISAT and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.