Bambara groundnut is an important African legume for which there has been no breeding strategy or attempt to match existing landraces to specific environments.
This project combines farmers knowledge, experiments and molecular techniques within a bambara groundnut improvement programme.
A growers survey will define desirable traits of local bambara groundnut genotypes.
Genetic and agronomic studies on contrasting landraces will link with farmers knowledge to produce assimilation model to define ideotypes for contrasting environments. The project will establish cost-effective molecular techniques and kits for use in African laboratories. These techniques will characterise genetic composition of bambara groundnut landraces. Techniques to facilitate crossbreeding to produce new varieties will be developed alongside methods to match the suitability of existing landraces to particular environmnents.
For the technical report follow the link: http://www.genres.de/bambara/r_7527/
A summary of the Technical Report is to be found here and the full report clicking here

1. Identify bambara groundnut ‘ideotypes’ for local conditions in Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland using a farmers survey
2. Characterise the genetic and agronomic performance of bambara groundnut landraces from Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland in field, controlled and on-farm environments
3. Evaluate genetic diversity in bambara groundnut germplasm using simple, readily transferable molecular strategies
4. Produce a robust bambara groundnut model to match suitable ideotypes to contrasting environments and end users
5. Establish an operational method of crossbreeding for intraspecific hybridisation in bambara groundnut
6. Develop a strategic bambara groundnut breeding programme based on morphological and molecular considerations
7. Provide a blueprint of how the methodology established for bambara groundnut can be applied to other underutilised crops

1. Department of Crop Science and Production, Botswana
2. TUM ( Technische Universität München: Chair of Agronomy and Plant Breeding)
3. Germany Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development: Department of Research and Training
4. Namibia Department of Biological Science
5. Swaziland

EC: Directorate General for Research
- DG Research: INCO Programme
INCO - reference: ICA4-2000-30002