Development of groundnut rosette disease and vector resistant varieties

Varietal resistance to groundnut rosette disease is the most practical and effective way to manage the disease and to reduce yield loss. Collaboration between the Oilseeds Programme at SAARI and ICRISAT Plant breeders was fostered utilising sources of resistance identified and developed at ICRISAT Lilongwe. The overall objective was to incorporate rosette resistance and several other key traits in order to meet the requirements of farmers in Uganda. The most important traits were identified as being high yield potential, short duration and drought resistance as well as quality characteristics that would meet the requirements of consumers in the market place. As a result of these efforts , two rosette resistant varieties were released in 1999; Serenut 1R and Serenut 2. Serenut 2, in particular, has been widely adopted by farmers. However, one limitation is that Serenut 2 is a medium duration variety (110 days) and hence it is vulnerable to end of season droughts. Short duration genotypes with resistance to rosette have been developed by ICRISAT and a major aim was to evaluate these genotypes to determine their suitability for release in Uganda. In 2002, two varieties were released by SAARI under the names Serenut 3R and Serenut 4T. These are early maturing (90 – 100 days), rosette resistant and high yielding (up to 3,000 kg/ha).