Background

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Orphan crops, such as Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea), are extremely tolerant to periods of prolonged drought and low soil fertility and so can contribute significantly to the food and nutritional security of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Although there is an abundance of genetic resources for Bambara groundnut, farmers have continued to grow landraces because of the lack of improved varieties. Smallholder farmers, in particular women, in SSA suffer low and unstable yields from the use of poor-quality seeds and farmers’ varieties from previous harvests. Bambara groundnutis nutritionally dense, despite a lack of dedicated breeding. Research addressing the characterization of genetic resources and Bambara groundnutcrop production have concentrated in semi-arid Africa, which limits Bambara groundnutand its landraces adaptation to a broad range of agro-ecologies and hence the potential to breed for improved pod yield in the humid tropical wet environments. This project will utilize field trial experiments, promising Bambara groundnut genotypes and germplasm needed to contribute to the global goals of food and nutritional security.

 

This research aims to resolve a major challenge of smallholder farmers: increased crop productivity in farmers field, by exploiting natural variation in diverse Bambara groundnut genetic resources for adaptation to humid environments, and enhanced capacity to effectively deploy these traits into breeding programmes. The development of materials specifically adapted to humid wet tropical environments may contribute towards yield stability and improve uptake of this underutilized crop.