Physiology of Groundnut under Water Deficit Stress

Abstract

The groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L), though native of South America, due to its wide adaptability the cultivation of this important food legume crop has been spread on almost all soils in the tropical and subtropical countries and now grown in about 128 countries in different agro-climatic zones mainly in semi-arid regions between latitudes 40ºS and 40ºN. However, its cultivation is settled in southern, eastern and south-eastern part of Asia, western Africa and northern and south America owing to favorable soil and climate and presently it is cultivated on 11.5 m ha land in Asian, 11.5 m ha in African and 1.1 m ha in American countries. Groundnut requires warm growing season with well distributed rainfall in the range of 500-1000 mm and on large scale it is mainly grown in semi-arid and arid regions of India, China, Nigeria, USA, Myanmar, Indonesia, Sudan, Senegal, Argentina and Vietnam, Ghana, Chad, Congo Republic, Mali, Guinea, Niger, Argentina, Brazil, Tanzania, Burkino Faso and Malawi. More than 85 per cent of the world groundnut production come from food deficit countries with an average productivity of about 1500 kg ha–1 and having more than 90 per cent of the groundnut growing areas of the world