Optimum Plant Density for Increased Groundnut Pod Yield and Economic Benefits in the Semi-Arid Tropics of West Africa

Abstract

Groundnut is a very important crop in the West and Central Africa (WCA) region, accounting for almost 70% of Africa’s groundnut production in 2019. Despite its economic importance, the crop’s yield is still low. For a high yield and profitable economic returns, optimal plant density is a fundamental crop management practice. Plant density experiments were conducted at the ICRISAT-Mali research station between 2016 and 2021 over the main rainy and dry seasons to determine the optimum density for maximum groundnut yield and economic benefits. The treatments contained row spacing of 20 cm, 30 cm, 40 cm, 50 cm, 60 cm, 70 cm, 80 cm, 90 cm, and 100 cm, with intra-row spacing of 10 cm, 15 cm, and 20 cm. Results showed that when plant density was increased, dry pod yield, production value, and net economic benefit per hectare increased in a no moisture stress scenario. During the rainy season, the 40 cm × 10 cm spacing gave the highest dry pod yield (1693 kg), production value ($891.6), and net benefit ($403.5) per hectare. The highest dry pod yield (3703 kg), production value ($2173), and net benefit ($1510.2) per hectare were obtained from 30 cm × 10 cm spacing during the dry season. The number of pods per plant and 100 SW increased with lower plant densities. Therefore, it is recommended to increase plant density to at least 222,000 plants per hectare in the Sudan Savannah agroecology of WCA.

Exploring Pod Seeded Groundnut and its Response to Spacing and Nutrient Levels

“…The higher plant population causes a struggle to utilize the growth resources restricting the photosynthetic partitioning and thereby reducing the yield parameters and yield. Further, there is a poor source-sink relationship and the formation of late flowers has been suppressed in closer planting due to severe competition [12,13,14]. The lower pod yield in the STCR approach might be possible because the STCR equation available for kernel-sown groundnut was followed for podsown groundnut where the yield and population were comparatively higher.…”

Effect of Rate and Time of Phosphorous Application and Planting Density on Yield and Net Benefit of Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea)

“…Chuma [56] reported that the application of diammonium phosphate at all doses was profitable based on the agronomic efficiency and value-cost ratio analyses. Similarly, Desmae [41] reported that the highest dry pod yield, production value, and net benefit per hectare were obtained from 30 cm × 10 cm spacing during the dry season. In this study, some treatments gave negative net economic benefits, which indicates that if farmers are not well advised on optimum agronomic practices, they would end up producing at a loss.…”

“…This showed that the application of phosphorus at sowing helped to significantly decrease the number of empty pods. Desmae [41] observed that the number of pods per plant and 100 seed weight increased with lower plant densities. The phosphorous macronutrient is key to photosynthesis and helps plants to convert sunlight into energy [42].…”

Determinants of Farmers’ Perception and Adoption of Improved Legume Varieties Among Farming Households in Northern Nigeria

“…In Africa, Nigeria is the highest producer of groundnut with 3.9 million hectares and 4.5 million tonnes produced (Desmae et al, 2022) and the second largest producer of soybean after South Africa (FAOSTAT, 2021). Yet, the productivity of groundnut is just approximately 1 tonne which is less than the global yield of 1.65 tonne (FAOSTAT, 2021) while that of soybean is clearly below the yield potential of over 3 tonnes (Ronner et al, 2016).…”