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Peanut - history of crop improvement and evaluation research
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- Peanut production areas in Queensland since the 1990s
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Background
The Australian peanut breeding program was established in 1977 by the Department of Primary Industries, Queensland - now part of the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI). Since then there have been 14 variety releases, of which nine are locally bred, four are direct introductions from the United States, and one was originally from Israel. See table below.
Released peanut varieties
| Variety | Year | Origin | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| McCubbin | 1985 | Local | Small-seeded red testa Spanish type. Developed by DEEDI from a cross between 'White Spanish' (= Spanish Improved) and a local landrace 'Red Spanish'. Provided the agronomic strength of Spanish Improved with a red testa. |
| Shulamit | 1987 | Intro | Large seeded Virginia type. Shulamit (from Israel) had excellent yield in North Queensland and better kernel grades than the previous 'Virginia Bunch' landrace. |
| NC 7 | 1990 | Intro | Large-seeded Virginia type. NC 7 delivered higher yields across Queensland (approx. 20% better than 'Virginia Bunch'). As well as being more broadly adapted than Shulamit, NC 7 had outstanding kernel quality. |
| Streeton | 1994 | Local | Medium-to-large-seeded Virginia type, selected and released for excellent yield and grade stability under drought. Bred from a cross of Early Bunch and NC 343, Streeton has valuable aflatoxin tolerance which has been proven commercially. Throughout the mid to late 1990s, Streeton was the backbone of dryland peanut production. |
| Roberts | 1998 | Intro | A variety for North Queensland with good resistance to Cylindrcladium black rot disease. Quickly replaced by Conder. |
| Conder | 1999 | Local | Delivered a 10% higher yield in irrigated and dryland production systems. One of the last normal oleic varieties to be phased-out. Also has intermediate CBR resistance. Bred from a cross of NC 8C and a University of Florida breeding line, UF 791533. |
| Middleton | 2004 | Local | A replacement for Streeton and NC 7 with huge improvements in shelf-life and blanchability. |
| Wheeler | 2004 | Local | A replacement for Conder with great shelf-life improvement. |
| D57-1-p2-10 Ashton | 2006 | Local | A robust dryland partner for Middleton with smaller kernel and erect bush. |
| D116-p35-2 Walter | 2006 | Local | Ultra-early, matures in 15 weeks at Kingaroy. It has a lower potential but much lower risk option for dryland growers. |
| D147-p3-6 Sutherland | 2006 | Local | High levels of foliar disease resistance, good yield, grades and blanchability. |
| Menzies | 2006 | Intro | |
| Holt | 2007 | Intro | |
| Tingoora | 2010 | Local | Ultra-early, matures in 15 weeks at Kingaroy. Provides a better yield and seed grades, and disease tolerance than Qalter, much lower risk option for dryland growers |
The emphasis of the program has changed since it commenced, initially being focused on selection for high-yield and drought adaptation for the major dry land production areas based in the Burnett (South East Queensland) and Atherton Tableland (North Queensland) regions. With the changing production base from rainfed to increased irrigated production in central and southern Queensland (see figure below) through the 1990s, there was a changed focus to also select for high-yield potential in these new environments, culminating in the release of Conder. Since 1995, the greatest emphasis has been to shift the entire variety development program to a yield and seed quality and high oleic fatty acid platform. See Peanut Company of Australia (PCA) for more information on hi-oeic acid peanut. Varietal improvement is being led by PCA in collaboration with DEEDI. A major focus of this work is to develop high-yielding varieties under two major maturity groups i.e. full season 22-23 weeks maturity and ultra-early 15-16 week maturity.
Recent research
The earier germplasm-related projects have involved the development of drought-resistant germplasm, both via selection for drought escape (ultra-early maturing varieties) and drought tolerance, via indirect selection for a number of traits known to confer superior drought adaptation (transpiration efficiency, partitioning to pods, rooting capacity). Current DEEDI research is focusing on developing management practices to realise yield potetial of recently released varieties under dryland and irrigated production systems.
For dryland peanuts, Afloman, a web-based decision support tool has been launched to assist growers to monitor alfatoxin risk on their paddocks by inputting minimum crop and weather parameters.
Research is underway to develop cost-effective drying practices to minimise post-harvest aflatoxin contamination in storage and maximise product quality.
For irrigated high input systems, a web-based decision support tool is being offered to assist growers with improving irrigation use-efficiency (see AQUAMAN for more details). Agronomic trials are also underway to optimise the use of chemical fertilizers and increase efficiency of bioloical nitrogen-fixation in coastal farming systems.
Ultra-early varieies have lower yield potential due to short crop duration. Current research is evaluating various row and plant spacing configurations to make up for the yield loss.
DEEDI - a world leader in peanut adaptation research
DEEDI has a wide network of research stations and laboratory facilities throughout the state. The organisation runs peanut trials from 17°S to 27° 30'S. Experimental material can be evaluated over a great range of environments, while remaining under the control of DEEDI.
DEEDI has a wealth of experience in the understanding of the adaptation of peanut to a range of eco-physiological conditions (e.g. radiation, temperature, photo-period, water deficit). Research experiments have been conducted on the adaptation of peanuts ranging from latitude 0° (Indonesia) to 35°S (South Australia). Numerous papers outlining this work have been published in the scientific literature.
The DEEDI peanut research team is a part of the world leader in peanut research, development and extension and have published their research in a wide range of international journals, newsletters and books. They have built an international reputation for quality work in plant breeding, agronomy, physiology, modelling, pathology and development/extension.
The DEEDI peanut research team has close linkages with the Agricultural Production Systems Research Unit modelling group, and developed expertise in applying peanut crop modelling to crop management improvement programs. Examples include:
- remotely assess in-season aflatoxin risk of peanut crops based on daily weather information.
- scheduling irrigations based on crop water requirements under current weather conditions.
- online yield prediction and aflatoxin risk probability scenarios for new environments using historical weather data.
The peanut research team are involved in a number of national and international contracted peanut research projects and have won a high reputation for delivering outcomes.
Future directions
With annual production of between 35,000 and 60,000 t per year, the Australian peanut industry is by world standards very small (less than 0.2% of world production). This, combined with the fact that production occurs over diverse environmental conditions (e.g. from 15 to 32S, irrigated and rainfed, changing disease spectrums), presents a huge challenge to the development of specifically (and superior) adapted varieties. A recent re-focus of DEEDI's peanut program has implemented the following strategies to better target the limited research, development and extension (RD&E) resources:
- a peanut breeding program is being led by PCA in collaboration with DEEDI to develop and release new varieties for growers.
- DEEDI´s research is focussing on -station and on-farm RD&E to achieve the genetic potential of existing varieties, especially in high input irrigated systems using novel agronomic practices underpinned by sound scientific principles. The current yield gap is of the order of 2-5 t/ha in rainfed and irrigated systems, respectively.
- in order to minimise aflatoxin impact in dryland, research and development efforts are being made to seek funding to develop a new Australian peanut hi-Oleic oil industry.
Further information
- Best management practices for peanuts
- Peanuts - growing and variety information
- Peanut growing tool - Afloman
- Peanut growing tool - AQUAMAN
Related resources:
- Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries 2007, 'Smart Peanut', Economic and information package for peanut farming systems CD-ROM.
- Bell, MJ, Harch, G and Wright, GC 1991, Plant population studies on peanut (Arachis hypogaea) in subtropical Australia: I. Water non-limiting conditions, 'Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture' 31:535-43.
- Bell, MJ, Wright, GC and Harch, G 1993, Environmental and agronomic effects on growth of four peanut cultivars in a subtropical environment: I. Dry matter accumulation and radiation use efficiency, 'Experimental Agriculture' 29:473-90.
- Bell, MJ, Wright, GC and Harch, G 1993, Environmental and agronomic effects on growth of four peanut cultivars in a subtropical environment: II. Pod growth and harvest index, 'Experimental Agriculture' 29:491-501.
- Chauhan, YS 2010. Potential productivity and water requirement of maize-peanut rotations in tropical Australia # a crop simulation study. Agricultural Water Management 97, 457-464.
- Chauhan, YS, Rachaputi, RCN, Wright, GC, Kuniata, L, Ramakrishna, A, Tomda, Y and Geob, T 2005. Pages 68-72 in ´Assessing the potential for rainfed peanut production in Papua New Guinea using crop modelling approaches´. Proceedings of final review meeting of the project ASEM 2001/055, 16-18 Oct 2005, Lae, (eds. Rachaputi, R.C.N, Wrigh, G., Kuiiata, L., and Ramakrishna, A.) ACIAR.
- Chauhan, YS, Rachaputi, R, and Wright, G 2008. Climate change impacts on peanut quality in the subtropical Australia. In 'Proceedings of the 5th International Crop Science Congress, 13 Apr to 18 Apr, 2008', Jeju. Korea. Page 92.
- Chauhan, YS, Wright, GC, Rachaputi, RCN, Kroch, S, Robertson MJ, Hargreaves, J and Broome A 2007. Using APSIM-soiltemp to simulate soil temperature in the podding zone of peanut. 'Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture' 47, 992-999.
- Chauhan, YS, Wright, GC, Rachaputi, RCN., Holzworth, D, Broome, A, Krosch, S. and Robertson, MJ 2010. Application of a model to assess aflatoxin risk in peanuts. 'Journal of Agricultural Science' 148,141-151.
- Chudleigh, F, Bell, MJ, Rachaputi, RCN., Chauhan, YS., and Wright, GC 2005. Smartpeanut´ - a suite of software tools that apply economic analysis to peanut farming systems in Australia. Pages 79-84 in ´Assessing the potential for rainfed peanut production in Papua New Guinea using crop modelling approaches´. in 'Proceedings of final review meeting of the project ASEM 2001/055, 16-18 Oct 2005', Lae, (eds. Rachaputi, R.C.N, Wrigh, G., Kuiiata, L., and Ramakrishna, A.). ACIAR.
- Fox GP and Cruickshank A 2005, Near infra-red reflectance as a rapid and cheap surrogate measure for fatty acid composition and oil content of peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.), 'Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy' 13, 287-91.
- Gowda, CLL, Serraj, R, Srinivasan, G, Chauhan, YS et al, 2009. Opportunities for improving crop water productivity through genetic enhancement of dryland crops. Pages. 133-163 in Rainfed agriculture: unlocking the potential (S.P. Wani, J Rockstrom and T. Oweis eds.). Wallingford, U.K.: CABI Publishing.
- Hammer, GL, Sinclair, TR, Wright, GC, Meinke, H and Bell, MJ 1995, A peanut simulation model: I. Model development and testing, 'Agronomy Journal' 87:1085-93.
- Rachaputi, RCN and Wright, GC (2004). 'Drought Resistant Ideotypes: Future Technologies And Approaches For The Development Of . pp 391- 394. In 'Encyclopedia of Plant and Crop Science' 1, DOI: 10.1081/E-EPCS 120010407, Marcel Dekker.
- Rachaputi, RCN, Wright, GC, Kuniata, L and Ramakrishna, A 2006. Improving yield and economic viability of peanut production in Papua New Guinea and Australia. 'Proceedings of a Workshop held in Lae, Papua New Guinea, 18-19 October 2005', Canberra, ACIAR Proceedings No 122, 124p.
- Wright, GC and Nageswara Rao C, 2002 "Transpiration Efficiency" pp 982- 988. In 'Encyclopedia of Water Science' (Stewart B. A. and Terry Howell eds.) Marcel Dekker, Inc.
- Wright, GC and Nageswara Rao C, Rachaputi. (2004). 'Drought and Drought Resistance'. pp 386-390. In 'Encyclopedia of Plant and Crop Science' 1, DOI: 10.1081/E-EPCS 120010407, Marcel Dekker
- Wright, GC and Nageswara Rao, RC 1994, 'Groundnut water relations', in 'The groundnut crop' by JT Smartt (ed.), Chapter 9, pp. 281-335, Chapman Hall (UK).
- Wright, GC, Nageswara Rao RC, and Basu, MS 1996. A physiological approach to the understanding of genotype by environment interactions- A case study on improvement of drought adaptation in groundnut. Page(s) 365-381 In 'Plant Adaptation and Crop Improvement: proceedings of an international workshop, 28 Nov --3 Dec 1994', ICRISAT Asia Center, India (Cooper, M. and Hammer, G.L. eds.). CAB International.
- Wright, GC, Rachaputi, N, Chauhan, Y and Robson, A 2005. Increasing productivity and quality of peanuts using novel crop modeling and remote sensing technologies. Pages 14-17 in ´Prospects and Emerging Opportunities for Peanut Quality and Utilisation Technology' International Peanut Conference, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand. 9-12 January 2005. . Kasetsart University: Bangkok, Thailand.
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Author: Rao Rachaputi and Yash Chauhan
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Last updated 03 November 2010