Chitedze

The team on groundnut conducts research and provides advisory services to farmers. Groundnut are a good source of protein and vegetable oil that are essential for normal human growth and development, food and cash income; improve soil fertility; and they are a valuable animal feed.

Areas of research

(i) breeding, agronomy and screening for tolerance/resistance against pests and diseases, particularly the evaluation of short-duration rosette tolerance/resistant groundnut genotypes
(ii) evaluation of agronomic practices (improved varieties, time of planting, evaluation of plant population and cultivation methods,and weeding frequency), and
(iii) assessment of yield losses caused by foliar fungal diseases for the promising new groundnut genotypes.

Achievements

Released varieties
(i) Chalimbana, Chitembana, Mani Pintar, Malimba, RG1, Mawanga, CG 7, ICGV-SM 90704, and JL 24.

Recommended agronomic practices
(i) time of planting, ridge and plant spacing, and time of harvesting, and
(ii) recommended disease control measures using cultural crop husbandry practices and fungicides, and resistant varieties (integrated disease management strategies).