Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources of Bambara Groundnut Conserved Ex Situ and Genetic Diversification of Its Primary Genepool for Semi-Arid Production

Josephine Tafadzwa Pasipanodya, Lydia Ndinelao Horn, Enoch Gbenato Achigan-Dako, Rudo Musango and Julia Sibiya
Additional contact information
Josephine Tafadzwa Pasipanodya: Faculty of Agriculture, Engineering and Natural Sciences, University of Namibia, Windhoek P.O. Box 13001, Namibia
Lydia Ndinelao Horn: Faculty of Agriculture, Engineering and Natural Sciences, University of Namibia, Windhoek P.O. Box 13001, Namibia
Enoch Gbenato Achigan-Dako: Laboratory of Genetics, Horticulture and Seed Science, Faculty of Agronomic Sciences, University of Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou 01 BP 526, Benin
Rudo Musango: Center for Climate Smart Agriculture and Biodiversity Conservation, Hamaraya University, Dire Dawa P.O. Box 138, Ethiopia
Julia Sibiya: School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, P. Bag X01, Scottsville 3209, South Africa

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: Bambara groundnut ( Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc) is a nutritious and drought-tolerant crop that is native to Africa. Currently, it possesses a cosmopolitan distribution across the semi-arid agro-ecologies of Africa and its cultivation has extended to other regions, particularly in the drier parts of Asia and Indonesia. Due to historic neglect, research on the crop and policy prioritization in national breeding programs is lagging; hence, varietal development is in its infancy. Farmers rely on traditional landraces, which are characterized by low productivity and yield. Breeding for moisture stress adaptation and high yield is crucial to improve its productivity and adequate genetic diversity is desired to strengthen resiliency for climate adaptation and nutritional and food security. Nevertheless, thousands of plant genetic resources (PGRs) conserved in several genebanks are still not being fully utilized to reintroduce lost diversity into farmers’ fields and pre-breeding activities. The exploitation of ex situ conserved PGRs has been minimal due to a lack of extensive genetic characterization. Thus, to harness utilization of the PGRs in genetic improvement programs, holistic strategies including the traditional genomic resources and participatory-led trait discoveries are needed to bridge the gap between conservation and utilization of ex situ germplasm. This review focuses on the PGRs of bambara, methods to widen genetic diversity, genomic resources, and high-throughput phenotyping to enhance the utilization of genetic resources in pre-breeding programs, and approaches to identify useful adaptive features for yield and drought.

Keywords: pre-breeding; genetic variation; plant introductions; bambara groundnut; plant genetic resources; genomics; core sets; focused subsets; drought adaptation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/4/492/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/4/492/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:4:p:492-:d:784135

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().