Modeling groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) performance under drought conditions

Erratic rainfall is often a limiting factor in the semi-arid regions where most groundnut cultivation occurs. As a result, ensuring availability of cultivars that possess inherent tolerance to drought stress has become a priority. Field and box (wooden boxes of 2 m length x 1 m width x 0.3 m depth) experiments were conducted under drought and non-drought conditions to identify physiological and agronomic traits correlated with pod yield (PY). Fifty (50) advanced breeding lines were evaluated. Linear models containing different combinations of total dry matter at maturity, crop growth rate, pod growth rate, partition coefficient, and harvest index were able to predict PY under intermittent drought (adjusted R-2 range: 0.9798-0.9895). The box experiment was more discriminating of genotypes than field experiments, making it a suitable technique for drought tolerance screening using specific leaf area and leaf chlorophyll content. As a result, screening and pre-selection using the seed-box technique before advanced evaluation on the field is recommended.