8 July 2011
No. 1474
Prelude to a successful release: (left) A groundnut field day and farmer participatory varietal evaluation of pigeonpea varieties in progress in Mozambique.
Improving food security and nutrition in southern Africa
New Groundnut and Pigeonpea Varieties Released in Mozambique “The new groundnut varieties offer various benefits to farmers, traders and consumers. Smallholder farmers will be the primary beneficiaries, as they will produce more groundnuts. They will have more to eat and this will improve their food security and nutrition. They will also get to sell more to raise incomes and improve their livelihoods.�
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his is how Dr Manuel Amane, Deputy Director General, Institute of Agricultural Research for Mozambique (IIAM) and leader of grain legumes research, described the six new groundnut varieties released in Mozambique, along with four pigeonpea varieties at a ceremony on 3 June at the IIAM headquarters in Maputo. The legume varieties released were selected from material provided by ICRISAT. The groundnut varieties released include five Spanish types, namely ICGV-SM 01513, ICGV-SM 01514, ICGV-SM 99541, ICGV-SM 99568, JL 24
and a Virginia type, ICGV-SM 83708 which were chosen after they performed better than local varieties in multi-location trials. The varieties were developed from the breeding program at ICRISATMalawi and ICRISAT-Patancheru. With good market traits (tan color with round kernels) and taste, the new varieties yielded higher than their local counterparts under short and medium-duration environments in several locations in Mozambique. Likewise, varieties ICGV-SM 01513, ICGV-SM 01514 and ICGV-SM 99568 are resistant to rosette disease. Maturing in less than 100 to page 2 ...