International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
Abstract
The production of groundnut and its cultivated areas in India showed a steady growth till the end
of the twentieth century. Groundnut, however, lost its preeminence as the most important oilseed
crop in the country during the last 13 years after the liberalization of edible oil imports. More
recently the importance of groundnut is increasing for food uses. Despite a growth in productivity
even during the last decade, the crop is losing areas in all the important growing states to more
profitable crops. India is incurring a heavy import bill for the import of edible oils. India has
relaunched a technology mission titled the ‘Integrated Scheme of Oilseeds, Pulses, Oil Palm and
Maize’ development program to improve the productivity and production of oilseeds in the country
and to reduce dependence on the imports of edible oil. Groundnut is one of the mandate crops
of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT), and this premier
international institute has been contributing its bit for genetic improvement, crop production
and protection practices in India and Africa during the last four decades. The generous support
received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided ICRISAT an opportunity to work
more intensively with its research and development partners to demonstrate the potential of new
technologies to enhance the yields, raise the profitability and revive the interest of the farmers
in groundnut crop in India and the strategy chosen is the Farmer Participatory Varietal Selection
(FPVS). This report synthesizes the efforts made during the short period of three years (2007–10) in
the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for groundnut crop improvement in India. Overall, the FPVS
results established that the new varieties out-yielded the respective check varieties in two states.
Due to different constraints and lack of institutional support, the adoption of those cultivars was low
in the targeted districts. From the past lessons learned, the report refocuses on the further efforts
needed during the second phase of the project to achieve greater success and impact
