Agronomic, nutritional and physical characteristics of some Indian groundnut cultivars

A study was conducted during 1995-97, 2 winter and 2 rainy seasons on 18 gr oundnut cultivars to evaluate their worthiness for export. Kernel yield alo ng with observations on physical and chemical attributes of kernels was rec orded. The physical attributes studied were sound-mature kernels, shape of kernels, seed size uniformity, 100 seed-mass and colour of testa, while amo ng the chemical attributes included were oil, protein, sucrose, reducing su gar, and free amino acid contents. The oil was analyzed for its fatty acid composition. The cultivars were finally evaluated on the basis of the relat ive desirability of various physical and chemical traits vis-a-vis kernel y ield. Cultivar ICGS 76' ranked first in kernel yield, fifth for physical at tributes, and fourth for chemical attributes, acid was thus identified as t he most suitable cultivar for the hand picked and selected trade. Cultivars 'ICGS 44' and 'ICGS 11' which both gave significantly higher than average kernel yield were adjudged to be high yielding cultivars with moderate phys ical and chemical attributes. 'TGK 19A,' an average yielder was adjudged to be the best for physical and chemical attributes and was followed by 'ICGS 11' in the same category. Although the popular cultivar 'GG 2' gave signif icantly above average yield it ranked low in physical and chemical attribut es.