Figure: Field visit during GNG-A meet on ICRISAT campus. Photo: ICRISAT

ICRICAR News – 24 April 2022

Groundnut Network Group – Asia is a platform of public and private sector partners along the groundnut value chain to engage in groundnut Product design, development, testing, and delivery. The GNG-A is also a platform for continued knowledge sharing on new tools and technologies that can be used in groundnut breeding and testing to enhance rate of genetic gains for key target traits, as well as share practices of selection by phenotyping and genotyping for the key traits. The consultations held in 2019 with the stakeholder of GNG-A provided the information that went into the designing of the Target Product Profiles (TPPs) and prioritized key industry traits like kernel size and kernel size distribution and blanchability in the groundnut breeding pipeline. Besides, the market studies conducted in Myanmar and India guided the market segmentation and TPP design. Fourth meeting of GNG-A was held on 5^th April 2022. Dr Arvind Kumar, Deputy Director General-Research in his opening remarks suggested the need for all the stakeholder from seed and food industry and researchers to collaborate effectively to promote the high oleic value chain in India.

The key discussion was around the  technical aspects including field visit the screening nursery for drought tolerance under managed stress environment.Early maturity (90-95 days) screening nursery that uses destructive sampling method and Cumulative Thermal Time (CTT) to determine the days based on accumulated heat units, and seed processing facility (SPF) which has NIRS to assess the genetic purity in the high oleic seed production chain. The protocols standardized for Blanchability and kernel size distribution and CT to determine shelling outturn and kernel mass were also shared.

The Multi Environment Testing ( MET) conducted by the partners is valuable and the best practices for METs, data analysis and data-driven decision were discussed. The importance and practices to ensure the genetic purity in high oleic seed chain was shared with all the stakeholders. Advanced breeding line of groundnut in the field and a seed display was also arranged under the field visit.

Dr M Manjurul Kadir, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Bangladesh; Dr Nguyen Xuan Thu, Director, Legume Research and Development Centre, Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (LRDC –VAAS), Vietnam; Dr Maw Maw Naing, Department of Agricultural Research (DAR), Myanmar; Dr Priya Jayantha, Grain Legume and Oil Crops Research and Development Centre (GLORDC), Sri Lanka; Dr Mehran Gholami, Deputy of Agriculture & Natural Resources Research and Education Center of Guilan Province, Iran; Dr Praharaj, Director, ICAR-Directorate of Groundnut Research; Dr Kim Eang Tho, Deputy Director, Division of Research and Extension Royal University of Agriculture Phnom Penh, Cambodia  presented on the groundnut markets and varietal requirement in the respective countries.

Dr. Manjurul, also noted that all  capacity building programs that hosted groundnut researchers at ICRISAT for hands-on training have always been very useful and have upgraded our skills. Discussing the progress on testing and variety release in Myanmar, Dr Naing informed that ICGV 00005 is identified as promising foliar fungal disease resistant lines that will be commercialized soon.

Participants: Partners from 7 countries viz., Asia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam, Iran, Srilanka, Laos, India and Cambodia representing research institutes, state agricultural universities, seed Corporations, private seed companies and private seed processors.

See https://www.icrisat.org/groundnut-network-group-asia-gng-a-a-platform-for-continued-agricultural-education-cae/