Strengthening conservation and utilization of ground-nut (Arachis hypogaea L.) genetic resources in West Africa

This paper describes the status of ground-nut (Arachis hypogaea L.) genetic resources conservation and utilization in West Africa. A proportion of ground-nut accessions conserved in the ICRISAT gene bank in Patancheru, India, were duplicated at ICRISAT, Niamey, Niger, to provide ready access to a greater range of diversity for crop improve­ment scientists. With support from the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), 6000 accessions from 73 countries were assembled, representing the major bo­tanic types and maturity groups. These accessions were characterized and evaluated for desirable traits at select­ed locations in West Africa, India and Malawi. The accessions were screened for their reaction to important diseases, including rust, early and late leaf spots, ground-nut rosette virus and aflatoxin contamination. In the collection, 166 ac­cessions show resistance to rust, 80 to late leaf spot, 30 to early leaf spot, 150 to ground-nut rosette disease and 74 to Aspergillus flavus invasion and aflatoxin contamination. The germplasm has been documented in printed catalogues, digitally on CD-ROMs and posted on the Web. Procedures for the distribu­tion and exchange of germplasm were developed and 6371 samples were dis­tributed to users. With support from the World Bank, an additional room was constructed at the gene bank at Niamey to accommodate 13 deep freezers to conserve the entire global ground-nut germplasm and other species, especially pearl millet.