Richard Oteng-Frimpong

• Head of Department at CSIR - Savanna Agricultural Research Institute, Ghana

Groundnut is an important cash crop and a diet component for rural households in sub-Saharan Africa. However, Aflatoxin contamination remains a barrier to promoting groundnut-based food products as food levels above maximum limit (ML) can adversely affect human health. Three objectives were set, namely, (i) to characterize the post-harvest operatio...

Late leaf spot (LLS) is an important disease of peanut, causing global yield losses. Developing resistant varieties through breeding is crucial for yield stability, especially for smallholder farmers. However, traditional phenotyping methods used for resistance selection are laborious and subjective. Remote sensing offers an accurate, objective, an...

The on-farm mother–baby trial experimental approach was employed to evaluate the performance of elite groundnut genotypes on farmers’ fields in the Guinea savannah agroecology of Ghana in the 2020 and 2021 cropping seasons. Analysis of the data from the mother trial revealed significant (p < 0.05) genotypic differences for the traits measured over...

Cultivated peanut or groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a grain legume grown in many developing countries by smallholder farmers for food, feed and/or income. The speciation of the cultivated species, that involved polyploidization followed by domestication, greatly reduced its variability at the DNA level. Mobilizing peanut diversity is a pre-requ...

The Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI) is one of the 13 research institutes under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Ghana. The institute is based in Nyankpala in the northern region of Ghana and has a mandate over the five regions in northern Ghana. The mandate area falls within the Guinea and Sudan savannah agroe...

Peanut cultivation in Ghana is influenced by abiotic (e.g., drought, fertilization, etc.) and biotic (e.g., pests, diseases, etc.) factors that must be managed effectively to maximize yields. These factors differ across agro-ecologies and pose significant risks to yields and aflatoxin contamination and can limit financial returns to farmers. Knowle...

Understanding the needs of farmers is the first step in designing appropriate interventions for agricultural productivity. This study used Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) to identify farmers' preferred groundnut traits and constraints to groundnut production in Ghana. Seven Focal Group Discussions (FGDs) were held across three agro-ecological z...

Crop yield is a derivative of the number of plants harvested. In Ghana, soybean fields are mostly sparsely populated with less than the optimum number of plants, a phenomenon that contributes to poor yields of only 46% of the crop’s potential in farmers’ fields. The low plant population could be the result of the poor quality of the seed planted. M...

Early leaf spot (ELS) and late leaf spot (LLS) diseases are the two most destructive groundnut diseases in Ghana resulting in ≤ 70% yield losses which is controlled largely by chemical method. To develop leaf spot resistant varieties, the present study was undertaken to identify single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers and putative candidate ge...

In this paper, we present a procedure for implementing field-based high-throughput plant phenotyping (HTPP) that can be used in resource-constrained research programs. The procedure relies on opensource tools with the only expensive item being one-off purchase of a drone. It includes acquiring images of the field of interest, stitching the images t...

Early Leaf Spot (ELS) caused by the fungus Passalora arachidicola and Late Leaf Spot (LLS) also caused by the fungus Nothopassalora personata, are the two major groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) destructive diseases in Ghana. Accurate phenotyping and genotyping to develop groundnut genotypes resistant to Leaf Spot Diseases (LSD) and to increase groun...

Suppressing pest populations below economically-damaging levels is an important element of sustainable peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) production. Peanut farmers and their advisors often approach pest management with similar goals regardless of where they are located. Anticipating pest outbreaks using field history and monitoring pest populations are...

Breeding for drought tolerance and increased grain yield is vital in mitigating the threat posed by recurrent drought stress on maize production, as well as tackling malnutrition with plant-based food products. The study was conducted to assess the combining ability of yellow maize lines and the performance of their single-cross hybrids under droug...

In this study, the differential rankings of 36 groundnut genotypes under varying environmental conditions were studied at various levels of phenotype. Locations that are generally accepted by the crop- and soil-based research community to represent the entire Guinea and Sudan Savanna agro-ecological zones in Ghana were characterized, this time usin...

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a multi-purpose legume serving millions of farmers and their value chain actors globally. Use of old poor-performing cultivars contributes to low yields (< 1 t/ha) of groundnut in sub-Saharan Africa including Tanzania. The objectives of this study were to determine the extent of genetic variation among diverse gro...

One of the main constraints to groundnut production has been the use of low yielding varieties, susceptible to biotic and abiotic stresses. Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) have been used by agricultural research organizations to help make their research more relevant and to facilitate the adaptation and dissemination of findings. In the implemen...

Groundnut production constitutes an integral part of the livelihoods of the people in the Guinea savanna of West Africa. This region accounts for over 70% of the total groundnut production in Ghana, 90% in Nigeria, and 100% in Mali and Burkina Faso. However, harsh environmental conditions often result in drastic yield reductions. In this study, we...

Despite its importance in providing income and food for smallholder farmers, fodder for livestock, and improving soil fertility through biological nitrogen fixation, groundnut yields are lowest on farmers’ fields in Sub-Saharan Africa due to biotic and abiotic constraints. Foliar fungal diseases account for over 80% reduction in groundnut productiv...

There are several hurdles to ensure sustainable seed production and consistent flow of improved legume varieties in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia (SA). The unreliable demand, autogamous nature of most of the grain legumes, and slow variety replacement rate by smallholder farmers do not provide strong incentive for private seed companies t...

This study seeks to compare profitability and profit efficiency of certified groundnut seed (CGS) and conventional groundnut (CG) production in Northern Ghana using cross-sectional data. The two-step stochastic metafrontier profit model was used to estimate profit efficiencies and their determining factors for CGS and CG producers. The study found...

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] is an important oilseed crop worldwide and it has recently become the crop of interest in Ghana. In this study, 142 soybean accessions were genotyped with 34 SSR markers and concurrently evaluated for five quantitative and two qualitative phenotypic traits. Twenty‐nine of the SSR markers were polymorphic with mean...

Legumes are important components of sustainable agricultural production, food, nutrition and income systems of developing countries. In spite of their importance, legume crop production is challenged by a number of biotic (diseases and pests) and abiotic stresses (heat, frost, drought and salinity), edaphic factors (associated with soil nutrient de...

Erratic rainfall is often a limiting factor in the semi-arid regions where most groundnut cultivation occurs. As a result, ensuring availability of cultivars that possess inherent tolerance to drought stress has become a priority. Field and box (wooden boxes of 2 m length × 1 m width × 0.3 m depth) experiments were conducted under drought and non-d...

In Ghana, the yield of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea, L.) is constrained by early and late leaf spot infections. Crop varieties possessing stay-green trait are known to show resistance or tolerance to disease and drought conditions. However, this association has not been documented and explored in groundnut. This work studied the stay green trait in...

In Ghana, the yield of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea, L.) is constrained by early and late leaf spot infections. Groundnut varieties possessing stay-green trait are known to show resistance or tolerance to early and late leaf spot infections. However, this relationship has not been documented in groundnut. This work studied the inheritance pattern of...

Identification of superior genotypes from variability generated via hybridization and understanding the nature of the gene action controlling grain yield and related traits are crucial for cowpea varietal improvement. A field experiment was conducted at the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute, Tamale-Ghana in the 2016 cropping season to examin...

Groundnut is an important food and oil crop in the semiarid tropics, contributing to household food consumption and cash income. In Asia and Africa, yields are low attributed to various production constraints. This review paper highlights advances in genetics, genomics and breeding to improve the productivity of groundnut. Genetic studies concernin...

About 70% of the groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) produced in Ghana is from the Guinea savanna. However, low soil nutrients, especially N, together with erratic rainfall distribution have often resulted in poor grain yield. The aim of this study was to evaluate plant growth, N2-fixing efficiency, N contribution, water-use efficiency and pod yield of...

Groundnut, the most important grain legume in Ghana, is largely cultivated under rainfed conditions within the Guinea savanna zone of the country. The pods and haulms are important sources of income for smallholder farmers in the region. There is an emerging market for groundnut haulms as livestock feed in Ghana. A population of 30 groundnut genoty...

The erratic rainfall pattern of the semi-arid Guinea savanna agro-ecology of Ghana and its devastating effect on smallholder farms has sparked an interest in developing varieties that are stable to stress imposed by drought. However, progress has been slow due to the complex nature of the drought tolerance trait. Yield has been used as an indicator...

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is the most important grain legume in Ghana. However, its production is constrained by a myriad of biotic and abiotic stresses which necessitate the development and use of superior varieties for increased yield. Germplasm characterisation both at the phenotypic and molecular level is important in all plant breeding p...

An evaluation of N2 fixation in food grain legumes grown in experimental plots in Africa revealed high levels of symbiotic dependency on N2 fixation for their N nutrition. Cowpea could, for example, derive 30-96% of its N nutrition from symbiosis; soybean, 39-87%; pigeon pea, 27-92%; groundnut, 24-67%; mungbean, 66-86%; chickpea (kabuli), 3-92%; an...

Groundnut is a major tropical legume cultivated in the world. The crop plays a major role in sub-Saharan Africa. Countries like Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana, for instance, are among the top ten global producers and occupy 12 percent of the market and continues to be an important food staple in many households. In northern Ghana, the crop is considere...

Climate change is predicted to increase the global temperature and result in a more erratic and unpredictable rainfall. Drought is predicted to be more severe in rainfed agriculture in the semi-arid tropics. Therefore drought tolerant genotypes are required especially for subsistence farmers. Carbon isotope discrimination (δ13C) during photosynthes...

Cassava mosaic disease (CMV), caused by one or a combination of cassava mosaic geminiviruses, is ranked among the most important constraints to profitable and efficient production of cassava. Effective control measures require in-depth knowledge of the viral causative agent. Using rolling-circle amplification and unique enzymes, the full genome of...