Overview
Climate change is putting considerable strain on food systems, making it difficult for farmers to produce sufficient yields to feed a growing global population. Developing climate resilient crops will be crucial to helping the agricultural sector to not only adapt and mitigate against the impacts of climate change but also meet food security and nutritional needs. Bambara groundnut, a grain legume of sub-Saharan Africa, has been touted as a promising crop that could help the agricultural sector achieve sustainable food production in a changing climate.
Indigenous to West Africa, Bambara groundnut, Vigna subterranea, is a hardy heat- and drought-resilient crop that can grow on poor soils. Its nitrogen-fixing qualities mean it can enrich soil quality and health. Often referred to as a ‘complete food’, Bambara groundnut is an excellent source of protein, fiber, as well as micro and macronutrients. Despite its agricultural and dietary benefits, the plant remains underutilized due to yield instability, long cooking times and adaptation issues. Progress in developing improved cultivars is hindered by incomplete genomic data and technical challenges in Bambara groundnut breeding, including the lack of genetic transformation and gene editing, and difficulties with crossing and hybridisation.
Objectives and activities
This project research will establish the genomic and breeding resources and technologies needed to develop improved varieties of Bambara groundnut. The teams aim to
- expand BGN genomic resources to facilitate trait discovery and breeding efforts
- investigate hybridisation barriers to improve conventional breeding
- establish genetic transformation to enable gene editing to target agronomically important traits.
Project partners
UK science institutes
University of Cambridge, Crop Science Centre
Niab
University of Nottingham
Kirkhouse Trust
CGIAR
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
Alliance Bioversity and CIAT-Tanzania (CIAT)
Local partners
University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Ghana
Where the project teams will be working
The teams will be working in Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania. This reflects the project’s focus on addressing the needs of farmers in the areas of Bambara groundnut production in West and Southern Africa.
