Obtaining Sustainable Higher Groundnut Yields: Principlesand Practices of Cultivation. Information Bulletin No. 71

With a few exceptions, groundnut productivity in most developing countries continues to be low. Although many high-yielding varieties have been released, their full potential is not realized in the absence of appropriate crop management practices. General agronomic recommendations are broad based and do not help much because of large variation in soil characteristics and nutrient status and other agroecological factors across groundnut fields. This bulletin discusses the underlying principles of various aspects of crop cultivation to encourage farmers to develop their own package of cultivation practices suitable to their fields and needs. It also provides information on groundnut cultivation under polythene mulch, which has resulted in 20–50% increase in groundnut productivity in China and on a seed production method to build self-reliance in the seed of improved groundnut varieties.