Abstract only

Lately, dramatic changes have occurred in the agricultural sector of Armenia. Areas under cereal crops, particularly of winter wheat, have expanded at the expense of reducing the area sown to forage grasses, perennial plantings and vineyards. In fact, winter wheat has become monoculture under Ararat valley conditions: Reasons of such changes are the lack of a wholesale farm produce market, insufficient assets of subsistanse farms, high prices of chemicals, mineral fertilizers, irrigation water, etc. Due to the above circumstances, from year to year the fertility of soils has been deteriorating and yield of farm crops decreasing. Alleviation of the results of the monoculture of some agricultural crops is an urgent issue for Annenia. Switching to biological and organic fanning, introduction of conservation agriculture seems to be the most efficient way of improving sustainability of agricultural production. For this purpose the introduction of alternative crops is required. Cultivation of such crops would contribute to improvement of soil fertility and farmer income. Groundnut is one of such alternative crops for the conditions of Ararat valley. Under the Ararat valley conditions, agricultu- ral crops, including groundnut, are grown exclusively under irrigated conditions. Temperature regime (sum active temperature above 10°C is 4000-4200) and slightly alkaline soils (pH = 7.7- 7.9) are rather favo- rable for cultivating groundnut and obtaining high yield. Groundnut is a valuable food and oil-yielding crop. Its raw material is widely employed in various processing enterprises. Groundnut grains are very nutrient, containing 43-50% of oil, 5-12% of car- bohydrates and 25-30% of protein. Groundnut is very popular in Armenia in various forms as a snack and as an ingredient of confectionery products. Its ground shell is a good feed for domestic poultry, while its tops -a coarse feed for agricultural animals. Nevertheless, groundnut is not a traditional crop for Armenia. Its major cultivation area is res- tricted to southern Armenia (Megrin region). The introduction of this valuable crop in the regions with favorable agro-climatic conditions for its cultivation is largely impeded by the lack of high-yielding and early-maturing varieties. Numerous entries from the world collection of groundnut were studied under soil and climatic conditions of Ararat valley, which are considered rather favorable for its growing. Given the high de- mand for groundnut grain from a part of the popu- lation and food industry, we, in cooperation with the International Crops Research Institute for.the Semi- Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), initiated in 2000 on-station and on-farm evaluation of over 60 entries of grou- ndnut. The purpose is to select the most valuable, high-yielding, early-maturing varieties suitable for growing under Ararat valley conditions. The collection comprised early-maturing (14), mid-maturing (15), drought-resistant (15), confec- tionery (15), Uzbek (5) varieties and one variety of the local Meghri population. It should be mentioned that the most promising under Ararat valley conditions were the early-maturing varieties, which are dis- tinguished from the varieties of other nurseries by high yield, number of beans per plant, as well as by other yield and agronomic traits. Three lines from this collection FCGV 94016,94031 and 94062) pro- duced comparatively high yield under the local conditions. Thus, according to 2000-2001 data, average yield of line 94016 made 3.9 t/ha, line 94031 -4.2t/ha and line 94064-3.6t/ha. Only one variety from the drought-resistant nursery (FCGV 93260) provided high yield. In other varieties, the yield generally varied between 1.4-2.4 t/ha. Confectionery varieties under Ararat valley conditions were found to be late maturing and, therefore, produced very low yields. The check variety (Meghri population) by yield was inferior to the best entries of the world collection, However, it provided within the study years relatively stable yield and, most important, matured early. Based on the study results it may be assumed that areas sown to groundnut will be expanded in the near future. The introduction of groundnut as an alternative crop under Ararat valley conditions will solve a number of farm production problems, namely this will: -alleviate the negative impact of winter wheat monoculture; -contribute to soil fertility improvement and partial solution of the nitrogen deficiency, as well as to reduction of the infestation of cropland with weeds; -provide the market with fresh quality produce.

English

0409|AGRIS 0401|AL-Wheat Program

Juan Carlos Mendieta

CIMMYT Publications Collection