Evaluation of the Agronomic Performance of Three Peanut Varieties Arachis hypogea L) and Detection of Diseases.

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Résumé

Peanut (Arachis hypogea L) is a legume widely produced in West Africa. Peanuts are of agronomic
interest to producers because they are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen, making crop associations
possible, especially with cereals. In Benin, soils are increasingly poor, peanut production in crop
rotation can be an alternative solution. But several diseases hamper its productivity, considerablyreduce leaf surfaces, affect photosynthesis by causing considerable drops in yield in addition to
contamination by aflatoxin. Although peanuts fix atmospheric nitrogen, they may also require the
addition of mineral elements for their development. The objectives of this study are to detection
diseases in peanut fields in southern Benin and to evaluate the agronomic performance of a variety.
A 3-repetition Split Splot experimental design was set up, with 2 factors. The fertilizer factor is the
fixed factor and the variety factor is the variable factor. Agromorphological parameters such as
germination rate, emergence and population density, 50% flowering date, and yield parameters
were evaluated. Disease identification was done according to symptomatology. The results show
that the germination rate in real environment is very low (5.71%) for variety 55-437 and higher than
79% for the other two varieties (ICGV, RRB). The emergence at fourteen days after sowing varies
from 91.67% to 98.30% and the population density at 90 days after sowing varies from 52.38% to
62.96%. A high mortality rate is recorded on all varieties. On all varieties, a group flowering was
recorded. The best yields were recorded with cow dung and compost respectively 3,88 t/ha and
3,76 t/ha. Five diseases were detected namely: early leaf spot, late leaf spot, rust, rosette and rots
due to the genus Aspergilus. Our study has highlighted the various fungal and viral diseases that
hamper peanut production in southern Benin.

Mots-clés

Arachis hypogea, disease, production, Benin.