Figure: X-ray image of peanut

X-ray radiography is being widely used as a medical and airport scanner. Now, for the first time in India, X-ray radiography has been established as an efficient method to quantify commercially important traits in unshelled peanuts. ​

The study led by a team of researchers from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Fraunhofer Development Center for X-ray Technology (EZRT) demonstrated the potential of X-ray radiography for a rapid and non-destructive determination of key market-related traits from X-ray scans of peanuts while still inside the hull.

Dr Stefan Gerth, Head of Department, EZRT said, “ICRISAT crop researchers pointed to the important gaps frequently restraining the Indian farmers from reaping the benefits of their hard labor, and researchers from rapid breeding of improved crops. The collaboration helped us to adapt our technology so that the gaps can be closed."

As a result, the peanut pods evaluation process has become more time and labor efficient. What took three-five skilled workers 30 minutes can now be done by a single technician in two minutes.

This enables the accurate and timely evaluation of the peanut pods for important market-related characteristics like kernel weight or shelling percentage from the X-ray scan of whole unshelled peanut pods.

The computer tomography (CT)-system enabling such analysis is available at ICRISAT headquarters in Hyderabad, India.

Dr Sunita Choudhary, Scientist, Crop Physiology and Modelling, Accelerated Crop Improvement Program, ICRISAT said that the use of X-ray based technology can revolutionize agriculture research, which has been relying on age-old manual methods or time-consuming laboratory testing methods for determining crop post-harvest traits.

See https://pressroom.icrisat.org/in-a-first-icrisat-uses-x-ray-to-assess-peanuts-quality