Yield Evaluation of Three Early Maturing Bambara Groundnut (Vigna subterranea L. Verdc) Landraces at the CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Fumesua-Kumasi, Ghana

The aim of this study was to determine the field performance of three early maturing bambara groundnut landraces which were identified in a controlled environment study by the lead author at the University of Guelph, Guelph-Ontario, Canada between October 2008 and March, 2009. Bambara groundnut is an indigenous African grain legume which is cultivated for food especially in the dry areas with short and erratic rainfall. Three bambara groundnut landraces; Burkina, Zebra coloured and Mottled Cream were evaluated for yield at the CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Kumasi-Ghana. The trial was sown on the 1st of April, 2009. The experiment was arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Plants were sown at a spacing of 50 by 20 cm at two seeds per hill and thinned to one seedling per hill at 20 DAS. Zebra coloured took the least number of days to mature (89.5 days) followed by Mottled Cream (98.2 days) and Burkina (112.5 days). Zebra coloured produced the greatest pod yield per plant (23.6 g) followed by Burkina (17.7 g) and Mottled Cream (12.5 g). The base colour of the three landraces which is cream has been identified to be the preference of bambara groundnut growers and consumers. In areas with erratic rainfall and the lower latitudes where long daylength can negatively affect bambara groundnut yields, these early maturing landraces have the potential to reduce variation in bambara groundnut yields.