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Background: Soil calcareousness is the major problem in arid and semi arid regions globally since lime induced chlorosis lead to the deficiency of many essential plant nutrients which in turn resulted in reduced growth and yield loss of many crops. To explore the effects of various concentrations of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) on seed germination and seedling growth of groundnut genotypes and to identify CaCO3 stress tolerant and sensitive groundnut genotypes. Methods: The seed germination and seedling growth of ten groundnut genotypes (CO 6, CO 7, TMV 2, TMV 10, TMV 13, TMV 14, VRI 7, VRI 8, ALR 2 and BSR 2) was investigated with CaCO3 concentrations ranging from 1 to 100 mM L-1 for a period of 14 days. Result: The genotypes VRI 8 and TMV 10 showed higher seed germination and seedling growth even at higher CaCO3 concentration (upto 20 mM L-1) and considered as tolerant genotypes. Whereas TMV 2 and VRI 7 exhibited drastic reduction even at 1 mM L-1 and confirms their susceptibility to CaCO3 stress. Higher concentrations of CaCO3 in the growing medium greatly decreased the germination rate, germination index and vitality index but the impact differs with potentials of genotypes studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduction in germination of crop seeds due to depletion of food reserves and decline in synthetic activity due to ageing has become a serious concern to groundnut growers who need adequate, high quality seeds to sustain groundnut production. Therefore, to stimulate farmers’ interest in groundnut production, an experiment was conducted to evaluate some groundnut varieties for their tolerance to seed ageing stress, with a view to recommending varieties that can be considered for production in tropical countries. Seeds of nine elite groundnut genotypes, sourced from The International Crops Research Institute of Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Kano and three other genotypes sourced from local seed dealer in Ibadan, Nigeria were subjected to seed quality assessments in the seed testing laboratory of Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Ibadan. The seed lots were subjected to accelerated ageing procedures of 42 °C temperature and 100% relative humidity for 24 hours. Twenty-five seeds of each genotype were drawn from each genotype in three replicates at 3, 6, 12 and 24 hours of ageing. The drawn samples were reassessed to determine their tolerance ability to ageing stress. Percentage germination was transformed using arc-sine before the data on preliminary seed germination and seedling vigour data and seed ageing data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SAS™ Means were separated using Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) at 5% level of significance while k-means non-hierarchical clustering analysis was used to group the genotypes based on their response to the ageing. Result showed that seeds of the groundnut genotypes differ in their response to ageing stress factors. Seeds of ‘Samnut-24’, ‘Samnut-25’ and ‘Ex-Dakar’ (R) were found to be more tolerant to ageing stress while ‘Samnut 22’ and ‘Boro White’ were susceptible to ageing stress. Optimum ageing for 24 hours is recommended for testing seeds of groundnut varieties for storage tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A field experiment on deep black soils during rabi season of 2014-15 to study the influence of ferti-fortification on dry matter production, yield and yield components viz., number of pods plant-1, pod weight, 100 kernel weight and shelling percentage of groundnut genotypes. Among groundnut genotypes, ICGV-00351 recorded significantly higher pod, kernel and haulm yield (2656, 1934 and 2894 kg ha-1, respectively), dry matter production at harvest (36.54 g plant-1), number of pods plant-1 (33.66), pod weight (31.81 g plant-1), 100 kernel weight (31.59 g) and shelling percentage (72.77 %) as compared to other genotypes. Among micronutrients application, higher dry matter production at harvest (43.60 g plant-1), pod, kernel and haulm yield (2789, 2051 and 3080 kg ha-1, respectively), number of pods plant-1 (34.08), pod weight (32.25 g plant-1), 100 kernel weight (31.61 g) and shelling percentage (73.21 %) recorded with soil (25 kg ha-1) and foliar (0.5 %) application of ZnSO4 (S4) as compared to control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]