Selection of peanut varieties adapted to the highlands of Papua New Guinea

摘要

Peanut is an important cash crop for small landholders in the highlands of Papua New Guinea because it has a high market value, short time to maturity and is easy to transport compared to popular crops like sweet potato. Peanut is mainly grown as a subsistence crop either in rotation with sweet potato or cassava or as a mixed crop with maize. Peanut growers in the Eastern Highlands Province are keen to intensify peanut cultivation if the seeds of high yielding varieties are available. However, therehas been little research effort on evaluation and introduction of new peanut varieties adapted to highland conditions. During 2003-05, field trials were conducted at the main highlands research program of the National Agricultural Research Institute, Aiyura, to identify high-yielding peanut cultivars from a wide range of peanut germplasm introduced from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid tropics (ICRISAT), India. The germplasm was grouped into short- and medium-duration types based on prior information about the time to maturity and evaluated in two separate trials. At Aiyura, short-duration cultivars matured at 126-134 days and yielded 3.5-4.8 t ha~(-1), compared to medium-duration cultivars which took 150-164 days to matureand produced yields of 2-3 t ha~(-1). However, some of the medium-duration cultivars had large kernel size (up to 0.8 gm per kernel), which could be attractive to the snack food niche market. Short-duration cultivars ICGV 93058, 94049, 93143, 96470, 96466 and 94361, and medium-duration cultivars ICGV 94043, 93115, 94113 and 96073, were found to be superior to local check varieties. The selected cultivars will be further evaluated in farmer fields before possible release for production in the highlands.