Response of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) genotypes to accelerated ageing treatment

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