Overview

Seed is one of the most serious constraints to the rapid recovery of the peanut sector in producing countries where there has been a collapse of civil society, famine or some other natural catastrophe. Peanut seeds are exceptionally large and therefore are needed in large quantities, the crop has a low multiplication rate (between 1-10 and 1-25). The seed also has relatively short viability (months) if the storage conditions are inadequate).

Two types of seed would be needed to re-establish the peanut sector.

1/ Germplasm collected previously from the target or comparable areas. 2/ Improved lines resulting from breeding programs addressing productivity through constraint resolution.

Because of the slow multiplication rate of peanut seeds multiplication would be based on anticipated demand based on forecasting of famine, appraisal of political and other developments in countries where peanuts are grown.

The project would use the existing knowledge of the spacial distribution of pests and diseases, the results of international variety trials and other sources of information to develop a short list of potential varieties for deployment in the nations of the world where disaster has occurred. Need for seed in relief operations would be established though links with involved agencies, and GIS would be deployed to assess need by matching crisis countries with historical peanut production data. To decide on varietal options best able to satisfy this need germplasm collected from the target countries and improved varieties identified by trials in comparable agro-ecological zones results will be selected and multiplied to satisfy anticipated demand.

Seeds not required for this purpose would be released for on farm testing by governments and other NGO’s advancing development as they approached the end of their shelf life.