A new variety of a high-yielding peanut is up for release for commercial production.
Named Namnama 2, the peanut is another significant output of the project on Peanut Crop Improvement being implemented by the DA-Cagayan Valley Integrated Agricultural Research Center (CVIARC).
Namnama 2 (namnama is an Iloko word which means hope) was nominated last May by the Field Legumes Technical Working Group as NSICPM 14 (NSIC stands for National Seed Industry Council).
A research paper on the new peanut variety, titled “Namnama 2: CVIARC Peanut Crop Improvement Project High Yielding Wet Season Variety,” was adjudged as the first runner-up in the Oct. 4-6 2007 (19th) National Research Symposium organized by the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR).
The report was authored by Rose Mary Aquino, Orlando Lorenzana, Violeta Peralta, and Vanessa Joy Fortin of the DA Regional Field Unit 11-CVIARC.
Namnama 2, which followed Namnama 1 released in 2002, began showing good yield and growth performance during the wet seasons of 2001 and 2002.
In a series of trials from 2003 to 2004, the variety consistently and significantly yielded higher than Namnama 1. This served as basis for its inclusion as official entry in the National Cooperative Test (NCT) in 2004.
Under the NCT, Namnama 2 consistently produced high yield (2,231 kilograms per hectare) and attractive bigger seed size during the wet season.
“The variety is resistant to bacterial wilt and other important foliar diseases (Corcospora leaf spot and rust) and has high biomass yield, hence, a good source of legume forage for livestocks,” researchers Aquino, Lorenzana, Peralta, and Fortin reported. — Rudy A. Fernandez