Groundnut Breeding

Groundnut or peanut is commonly called the man's nut of the Saurashtra region. Today, it is an important oilseed and food crop. The botanical name for groundnut, Arachis hypogaea. is derived from two Greek words, Arachis means a legume and hypogaea means below ground, referring to the formation of pods in the soil. Peanut is also known as earthnuts, ground nuts, goobers, goober peas, pindas, jack nuts, pinders, manila nuts and monkey nuts; the last of these is often used to mean the entire pod.Groundnut is believed to be originated from South America. It is an allotetraploid (2n=4x=40) with basic chromosome number, x =10. The choice of genetically divergent parents for hybridization under transgressive breeding programme is also dependent upon categorization of breeding materials on the basis of appropriate criteria. Systematic classification rests exclusively upon easily distinguishable qualitative attributes. This represents phylogenetic hierarchy or descriptive account of individuals or groups of individuals.