Groundnut

History

• Groundnut is one of the most important oil seed crop of India. Groundnut in Indian local names is as follows .

Local Names

Bengali: Cheenabadam

Oriya: Chinabadam

Hindi: Mungfall

Assamese: Chinabadam

Punjabi: Mungfali

Gujarati: Bhoising

Marathi: Phuimug

Tamil: Nilakadalia

Telugu: Nelashanaga / Verushanaga.

• Among oil seed crops groundnut has first place in India due to various reasons as follows,
  1. It can withstand drought and is suitable for dryland farming.
  2. It is a soil erosion resistant crop and being a legume crop, it can fix the atmospheric Nitrogen with the help of nodule bacteria and thereby improves the soil fertility.
  3. It provides a good green manure for the succeeding crop.
  4. Its shell, skin, hulm and hay are all good as fooder.
  5. Groundnut cake is chief oil cake feed to animals and it is also used as manures.
  6. The plant stalks are fed to cattle in the form of green , dried and silage.
  7. It is an important cash crop and is useful as a rotational crop.
  8. Moreover, groundnut is an excellent money corner and a chief source of protein.

• The genus Arachis L. Comprises a large and diverse group of diploid and tetraploid taxa native only to south America.
• There Arachis ranges geographically from the equator near the mouth of the amazon to 34 degree Southern latitude on the northern bank of the Rio de la plata in Uruguay, and extends westward from the Atlantic to the parana and the eastern foot hills of the andes (35-66 degree West longitude).
• The northern boundary is usually marked by the southern extent of the amazonian rainforest, except where Arachis spp, may occur where the forest is penetrated by the more open vegetation of the cerrado breaks.
• Biological dispersal mechanisms are very poor, with the annual dispersion rate limited to a radius varying from several centimetres to a few metres.
• Although 50-70 species may exist in the genus, only 23 species are cultivated.
• All are indigenous to the area east of the Andes and south of the amazon rainforest.

• Linnaeus (1753) described the first Arachis in his species plantarium.
• Five species, each from different sections, are now cultivated.
• A.Hypogaea L; the principal cultigen, are grown for their edible seeds and were improved by the indigenous peoples of south america. Recently, forms of A.glabrata Benth., A.repens.
• The low genetic affinity of these five species shows their independent domestication.
• This is especially interesting for A.hypogaea and A.villosulicarpa, both cultivated for their qualities for human nutrition: A.hypogaea is widely spread throughout the world but A.villosulicarpa has limited use only by the Indians.
• A.hypogaea is the only domesticant, whereas the others are cultivated, i.e., they can survive in the wild. Arachis hypogaea (2n=4x=40) is a member of section Arachis.

• A small-podded genotype with a spreading habit of growth was the earliest form successfully introduced into commerce in the south-eastern United States.
• It is a long-season groundnut, possibly from Africa.The Guarani region of north-eastern Argentina, Paraguay and south western Brazil is the centre of variation for the spanish type (subsp. Fastigiata var. vulgaris) and it was distributed from this region.
• The spanish who cultivated the crop both for cooking oil and for use in preparing a chocolate covered confection, extracted the first oil in Europe .
• The spanish type is a small two-seeded form adapted to adverse environmental conditions;Groundnut is cropped on exposed riverine sandbars during the low-water season.
• A selected portion of the harvest is replanted in upland gardens as a seed crop.
• The cropping system exerts strong selection pressure for the subspecific valencia characters of earliness, sequential flowering, loss of seed dormancy, and strong pegs.
• Bees are frequent visitors to the flowers.
• Such data, with the archaeological and historical evidence, and the diversity of valencia landraces, further support the notion that ancient people living in this region also developed that valencia botanical type.

• In India Total area under ground nut cultivation is 4.9million hectare and its total production is 5.8million ton.
• There is continuous decrease in the area covered under groundnut cultivation for example in 1986-87 area covered under groundnut was 37.5 percent of total cultivation area of oil seeds. Which reduced to 34.4% in 1992-93.
• Same way the production also has decreased from 1986-87 about 52% to 41.3% in 1992-93.
• In northern region of India total area under groundnut cultivation is reducing gradually.
• In 1980-81 the total area cultivated under groundnut cultivation was 1.9 lakh hectare in Uttar Pradesh which is reduced to 1.27lakh hectare in 1992-93.
• The causes reduction of area cultivated under groundnut cultivation in Uttar Pradesh are, lack of irrigation factilities, losses due to white, excessive labour cost and security of improved vareity seeds
• In Uttar Pradesh area covered under groundnut is 0.73 lakh hectare with total production of 0.48 lakh tons and productivity 8.74 Kg per hectare.