Sesame is predominantly cultivated in rainfed and low fertile lands and is frequently exposed to terminal drought. Sesamum species inhabiting dryland ecosystems adaptively diverge from those inhabiting rainfed habitats, and drought-specific traits have a genetic basis. In sesame, traits associated with drought conditions have not been explored to date, yet studies of these traits are needed given that drought is predicted to become more frequent and severe in many parts of the world because of climate change. Here, 76 accessions from the available Indian core set were used to quantify variation in several traits under irrigated (WW) and terminal drought stress (WS) conditions as well as their association with seed yield over two consecutive years. The range of trait variation among the studied genotypes under WW and WS was significant. Furthermore, the traits associated with seed yield under WW and WS differed. The per se performance of the accessions indicated that the expression of most traits was reduced under WS. The correlation analysis revealed that the number of branches, leaf area (LA), leaves dry weight (LDW), number of capsules plant–1, and harvest index (HI) were positively correlated with seed yield under WW and WS, and total dry matter (TDM), plant stem weight, and canopy temperature (CT) were negatively correlated with seed yield under WW and WS, indicating that smaller and cooler canopy genotypes had higher yields. The genotypes IC-131936, IC-204045, IC-204861, IC-205363, IC-205311, and IC-73576 with the highest seed yields were characterized by low canopy temperature, high relative water content, and high harvest index under WS. Phenotypic and molecular diversity analysis was conducted on genotypes along with checks. Phenotypic diversity was assessed using multivariate analysis, whereas molecular diversity was estimated using simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci to facilitate the use of sesame in breeding and genetic mapping. SSRs showed low allelic variation, as indicated by a low average number of alleles (2.31) per locus, gene diversity (0.25), and polymorphism information content (0.22). Cluster analysis (CA) [neighbor-joining (NJ) tree] revealed three major genotypic groups and structure analysis showed 4 populations. The diverse genotypes identified with promising morpho-physiological traits can be used in breeding programs to develop new varieties.

The physiological phenomena of yield barriers in rust resistant groundnut genotypes were studied using growth analysis as a tool. Ten genotypes including four susceptible, three each from partial resistant and resistant categories were subjected for the study. Higher CGR, LAR and LAI during the pod filling and maturity stages in resistant and partially resistant genotypes indicated more partitioning of dry matter to leaf tissues rather than to pods, resulting in poor development of pods and kernels. The evolution of partially resistant varieties in preference to completely resistant ones for cultivation in endemic areas will be more useful.

Field experiments were conducted to find out the correct sowing date for rainfed groundnut with one pre-sowing irrigations for three years. The results showed that pod yield in all the three varieties increased, if the sowing was advanced by ten days. The yield increase was a result of improvement in shelling out turn and SMK percentage. Crops sown 10 days early than recom- mended sowing date was significantly higher (1612 kg.ha¹) than other sowing dates. Among the varieties, Co 2 and JL 24 responded better than TMV2.

A field experiment conducted at the Agricultural Research Station, Aliyarnagar during Kharif seasons of 1986, 1987 and 1988 revealed that redgram to be a suitable and remunerative intercrop in groundnut.Raising one row of redgram for every six rows of groundnut proved to be the most suitable arrangement of the component crops.