Advances of groundnut breeding and seed systems in Tanzania

Groundnut (Arachis hypogeal L.) is an important oilseed crop, mainly grown by smallholder farmers on 839,631 ha in four agro-ecological zones (Lake, central, western and southern) of Tanzania. The average yield is 965kg/ha with a national production of 810,000 tons. The major production constraints are foliar diseases (rosette, early leaf spot, late leaf spot, and rust), drought, aflatoxin contamination, and low soil fertility. This paper explores the advances made in a breeding program to solve these challenges. The genotype by environment interaction with linkage to good agronomic practices, using effective selection molecular tools, was used and significant achievements were recorded. Eight improved varieties were released with support from ICRISAT-led programs. The newly-released varieties command high-yielding ability (1800-2500 kg/ha), and tolerance to rosette disease and drought, and are highly preferred by farmers and market. The improved varieties increased yields and productivity at the farm level and groundnut production from 400,000- 810000 tons over the last 10 years. Effective seed delivery to smallholder farmers did not automatically follow. The Tropical Legumes Project, through NARI, designed rural seed fairs which are used to create awareness, increase accessibility, and create working contacts among community seed producers. Other seed delivery models tested and used include: farmer research groups, demonstrations, field days, community seed production, radio and TV events, political figures’ engagement and multi-stakeholder engagements. These models have raised awareness, increased demand of improved seed, and enhanced smallholder seed supply at affordable price with a significant number of beneficiaries reached (1,600,000 farmers

Bambara nut: A review of utilisation, market potential and crop improvement

Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) originated in West Africa but has become widely distributed throughout the semi-arid zone of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Sharing a high nutritive value with other widely consumed legumes, bambara has an appealing flavour which is reflected in demand from small local and niche markets. Despite its high and balanced protein content, bambara remains under-utilised because it takes a long time to cook, contains anti-nutritional factors and does not dehull easily. Bambara yields well under conditions which are too arid for groundnut (Arachis hypogea), maize (Zea mays L.) and even sorghum (Sorghum bicolar). Its drought tolerance makes bambara a useful legume to include in climate change adaptation strategies. Existing bambara products are not well promoted in the local or international markets and new products are needed that highlight its inherent nutritional and culinary advantages. A number of projects on bambara, involving several countries in SSA since the 1980s, have failed to stimulate a sustainable increase in the production of the crop. The absence of functioning value chains has been a factor in this failure, as accessible market outlets might provide the required incentive for smallholder households to obtain improved seed and invest more of their land and labour in the crop. There is little documented evidence of trade in bambara but circumstantial evidence indicates considerable international demand. More attention should be given, therefore, to market research and development, with crop improvement programmes being more market-led, if bambara is to make a greater contribution to household income and rural development in SSA

Improving Food Security and Nutrition in Malawi and Tanzania through Research on Edible Legumes

This publication contains a series of papers presented during two stakeholder workshops on groundnut production held in Lilongwe Malawi, and Mtwara Tanzania 1-2 March, and 13 April, 2007. The workshops provided opportunity v for stakeholders to identify issues related to groundnut production and inform Project activities. The meetings, thus, hoped to identify issues and strategies that could be used to improve project workplans and design and ensure more sustainable outcomes as envisaged in the proposal

A Value Chain Analysis for Pigeon Pea in the Southern Regions of Tanzania, Socioeconomics Discussion Paper Series Number 17

This report presents the value chain analysis for pigeonpeas in the South-eastern Tanzania. The study is part of the ICRISAT project “Enhancing Productivity of Groundnut and Pigeon pea Cropping Systems in Eastern Africa”. Specifically, it forms part of Output 3: Structure, conduct and performance of value chains for groundnut and pigeon pea. In this output includes two activities: firstly Map existing value chains and identify constraints on market performance and secondly test innovations to enhance performance of the value chain

Bulletin of Tropical Legumes

The Bulletin of Tropical Legumes is a quarterly publication of the Tropical Legumes III (TL III) project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and jointly implemented by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi- Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in close collaboration with partners in the National Agricultural Research Systems of target countries in sub- Saharan Africa and South Asia. TL III aims to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in drought-prone areas of the two regions through enhanced productivity and production of grain legumes

KINET: A social marketing programme of treated nets and net treatment for malaria control in Tanzania, with evaluation of child health and long-term survival

We present a large-scale social marketing programme of insecticide-treated nets in 2 rural districts in south-western Tanzania (population 350 000) and describe how the long-term child health and survival impact will be assessed. Formative and market research were conducted in order to understand community perceptions, knowledge, attitudes and practice with respect to the products to be socially marketed. We identified Zuia Mbu (Kiswahili for ‘prevent mosquitoes') as a suitable brand name for both treated nets and single-dose insecticide treatment sachets. A mix of public and private sales outlets is used for distribution. In the first stage of a stepped introduction 31 net agents were appointed and trained in 18 villages: 15 were shop owners, 14 were village leaders, 1 was a parish priest and 1 a health worker. For net treatment 37 young people were appointed in the same villages and trained as agents. Further institutions in both districts such as hospitals, development projects and employers were also involved in distribution. Promotion for both products was intense and used a variety of channels. A total of 22 410 nets and 8072 treatments were sold during the first year: 18 months after launching, 46% of 312 families with children aged under 5 years reported that their children were sleeping under treated nets. A strong evaluation component in over 50 000 people allows assessment of the long-term effects of insecticide-treated nets on child health and survival, anaemia in pregnancy, and the costs of the intervention. This evaluation is based on cross-sectional surveys, and case-control and cohort studie

Genotype-by-environment interactions for grain yield of Valencia groundnut genotypes in East and Southern Africa

Grain yield is a quantitatively inherited trait in groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.) and subject to genotype by environment interactions. Groundnut varieties show wide variation in grain yield across different agro-ecologies. The objectives of this study were to evaluate Valencia groundnut genotypes for yield stability and classify environments to devise appropriate breeding strategies. Seventeen multi-location trials were conducted in six countries, viz., Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia, from 2013 to 2016. The experiments were laid out following a resolvable incomplete block design, with two replications at each location (hereafter referred to as ‘environments’) using 14 test lines and two standard checks. The additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis was conducted. Variation attributable to environments, genotypes and genotype × environment interaction for grain yield was highly significant (P<0.001). Genotype, environment and genotype × environment interactions accounted for 7%, 53 % and 40% of the total sum of squares respectively. Superior-performing genotypes possessing high to moderate adaptability and stability levels included ICGV-SM 0154, ICGV-SM 07539, ICGV-SM 07536, ICGV-SM 7501, ICGV-SM 99568 and ICGV SM 07520. Nachingwea 2013 in Tanzania, Nakabango 2014 in Uganda and Chitedze 2015 in Malawi were the most representative and discriminative environments. Considering the implications of interactions for Valencia groundnut breeding in East and Southern Africa we propose that different varieties should be targeted for production in different environments and at the same time used for breeding in specific environments

Selection of intermittent drought tolerant lines across years and locations in the reference collection of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

Intermittent drought is the most important yield limiting factor affecting groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) production in rain-fed regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Improvement of crop adaptation to drought is needed and this starts by having a thorough assessment of a large and representative set of germplasm. In this study, 247 lines belonging to the reference collection of groundnut were assessed under well-watered (WW) and intermittent water stress (WS) conditions in India and Niger for two years, following similar experimental protocols. The WS treatment reduced pod yield (31–46%), haulm yield (8–55%) and the harvest index (1–10%). Besides a strong treatment effect, yield differences within locations and years, were attributed to both genotypic and genotype-by-treatment interactions. Pod yield under WW and WS conditions were closely related in both years (Patancheru, r2 = 0.42 and r2 = 0.50; Sadore, r2 = 0.22 and r2 = 0.23). By contrast, within location and treatment, pod and haulm yields were affected predominantly by genotype-by-year (G × Y) effects, especially under WS. Within treatment across locations and years, pod and haulm yields were mostly ruled by genotypic effects, which allowed identifying a group of entries with contrasting pod yield across locations under WS. However, genotype and genotype by environment (GGE) biplot analyses distinguished India from Niger, suggesting that the selection remains environment-specific and also revealed dissimilarity between years in Niger. A close relationship was observed between yield and pod growth rate (r2 = 0.51), and partition (r2 = 0.33) under WS conditions, whereas no significant relationship was found between yield under WS and SCMR, or specific leaf area (SLA). These results showing a close interaction between the environmental conditions and the genotypic response to intermittent drought shows the necessity to carefully choose environments that truly represent target environments. This is an important result in the current breeding context of marker-assisted recurrent selection or genome-wide selection. This work opens also new ways for the breeding of drought tolerant groundnut, by bringing new highly contrasting lines currently used for crossing and deciphering drought adaptation traits to better understand G × E interactions, while it challenges the relevance of long-time used surrogates such as SCMR or SLA

Aflatoxin contamination in Tanzania: quantifying the problem in maize and groundnuts from rural households

Published online: 28 Apr 2021Aflatoxins are toxic and carcinogenic secondary metabolites, produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, which contaminate food and feed and threaten human and animal health. To assess the prevalence of aflatoxins in Tanzania, 180 groundnut and 200 maize samples were collected from 9 and 10 districts, respectively. Aflatoxin contamination was quantified using high performance liquid chromatography. Aflatoxins were detected in samples collected from all districts and prevalence ranged from 92 to 100% for groundnuts and 10 to 80% for maize. The mean aflatoxin level for groundnuts was 6.37 μg/kg and the highly contaminated sample had 40.31 μg/kg. For maize, the mean aflatoxin level was 12.47 μg/kg and the highly contaminated sample had 162.40 μg/kg. The estimated average probable daily intake (APDI) of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) from groundnuts consumption was 1.88 ng/kg body weight/day, while for maize, it ranged between 151.98-272.89 ng/kg body weight/day. The APDI for both groundnut and maize exceeded the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake (PMTDI) of AFB1 for adults (1 ng/kg body weight/day), bringing about health concerns for populations in Tanzania. Another alarming finding was that 75% of the farmers who provided samples for analysis were not aware of aflatoxins or the negative health impacts from consuming contaminated products. Results reported in this paper show that aflatoxin contaminated staple crops are widely distributed in Tanzania and that the risk of human exposure is high due to diet preferences. Awareness campaigns are required to inform and protect farmers and consumers