New peanut breeding lines

MANILA, Philippines - As a result of the continuous collaboration between the Bureau of Agricultural Research and the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), new potential breeding lines of peanuts were identified through the project “Field Testing of ICRISAT Legume Varieties and Technologies in Selected Regions in the Philippines”.        

Adaptability of ICRISAT peanut varieties under the Philippine climatic condition has potential for local production and development. In fact, peanut germplasm and breeding lines/selections had already proven suitable under Philippine condition, as five introduced peanut lines from India (UPL Pn 10, NSIC Pn 11 and Pn 14 or the Namnama, NSIC Pn 12 or Ilocos Pink and recently the Asha peanut or NSIC Pn 15) passed the standard field testing requirements of the National Cooperative Test (NCT) and the National Seed Industry Council (NSIC) as well.        

For the purpose of increasing food production in the country, the project aims to make available and provide farmers with different varieties of peanuts, pigeon pea and chick pea.

The following breeding lines have been tested through on-station adaptability yield trial (AYT) on regions 1, 5,6,7,8, 9 and 10: ICGV 00350, ICGV 01376, ICGV 99046, and ICGV 01376 for peanut, ICPL 88039, ICPL 88034, ICPL 87091, ICPL 161, ICPL 81, ICP 8863, ICP 7035, ICPL 87051, and ICPL 87119 for pigeon pea and ICCV 93952, ICCV 93954, ICCV 94954, ICCV 92944, ICCV 92311, ICCV 2, ICCV 95311, and ICCV 95332 for chickpea.

These breeding lines were compared with the existing national varieties (check variety). Peanut breeding lines were compared to Asha peanut, Namnama 1 and 2 and the NSIC Pn 12 or Ilocos Pink. Meanwhile, because there is no existing national variety for pigeon pea and chick pea, local varieties were used for this purpose. Among the parameters used were: days to flower, days to maturity, number of pods per plant, biomass yield, number of seeds per pod, seed weight, and seed yield.

Based on the results of the national project evaluation conducted at BAR on Dec. 15, 2009, the ICGV 00350, ICGV 01376 and ICGV 99046 are the dominant breeding lines identified for peanut while chickpea and pigeon pea have no results yet because harvesting season is still on-going.

The peanut experts facilitating the national evaluation were Elmer Enicola, of the Institute of Plant Breeding – University of the Philippines Los Baños (IPB-UPLB) and Rose Mary Aquino of the Department of Agriculture – Cagayan Valley Integrated Agricultural Research Center (DA-CVIARC).

According to the project evaluators, the identified potential breeding lines can already be included in the national screening as NCT test entries this year if found stable in producing high yield in the second yield trials to be conducted in six test-sites in the country. – Edmon B. Agron, DA-BAR