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FOCUS
Groundnuts
Mini-
50
th
ANNUAL MEETING
of APRES
– in a nutshell
F
or many a researcher and student that focus on the groundnut
crop, the American Peanut Research and Education Society
(APRES) has become the go-to congress where researchers
and breeders from all over the globe gather to share informa-
tion and advances in research.
It has become an annual pilgrimage, but for the representatives
of GWK and Triotrade (Mr Pierre Ferreira and Ms Loureine Muller)
this has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. South Africa has not
been represented at this meeting for quite some time and it was
evident by the warm welcome that the country has been absent for
too long.
The annual meeting was held over a period of four days in Williams-
burg, Virginia in die United States (USA). There were presentations
by many well-known researchers that specialise in different fields of
study, but there were also presentations and posters made by stu-
dents. This painted a picture of hope as there is an influx of new
upcoming researchers and plant breeders that have shown keen in-
terest in the fascinating crop called groundnut.
Being the 50
th
meeting of the society, a festive atmosphere was cre-
ated by the incorporation of field trips to a working historical farm
called Chippokes Plantation. During the early settlement of Virginia
this farm was one of the first groundnut production farms. Histori-
cal groundnut implements that can be seen in the agricultural mu-
seum closely resemble current implements, as the workings of the
machines were adapted to newer technology but are still based on
the same principles.
The Peanut Foundation held a very informative pre-congress
workshop. Topics such as marker assisted selection (MAS) for
plant breeders, as well as the use of the newly mapped groundnut
genome for use in groundnut breeding, were merely some that
featured during the interesting discussions that were held during
this workshop.
The curator of the Peanut Crop Germplasm Committee gave a very
insightful report on their inventory status. They currently have
9 258 different cultivars and 558 wild
Arachis
species in their
groundnut accession collection. The main aim of this collection is
to have a large genetic pool for researchers and breeders to draw
material from. This could be used for either breeding or research
purposes.
Dr Shyamalrau Tallury explained the various methods of keep-
ing this collection viable, either by germplasm regeneration or the
maintaining of perennial hybrids planted in clay pots and kept in
greenhouses. Other issues such as food security, the genetic base of
crop production as well as the threat of genetic erosion, as explained
by Dr Corley Holbrook, also came under discussion.
The overall impression after the pre-congress workshop was that
USA programmes, such as germplasm upkeep, were all under finan-
cial pressure. Their budgets have been cut since 2008 and are cur-
rently at a low of $44 000 per year. The USA have various private
groundnut breeders that fund their own programmes. Interestingly
not all groundnut cultivars in the USA have high oleic content.
There are still areas that plant normal oleic Runner cultivars as well
as small areas that produce Spanish type cultivars. The Spanish type
cultivars are not true ‘Spanish types’, as they are hybrid Spanish/
Runner types. There seems to be a strong move to return to old-
er germplasm accessions to delve into the genetic possibilities as
marker-assisted breeding starts to take shape.
LOUREINE MULLER,
groundnut agronomist, Triotrade Gauteng
Februarie 2019
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