Evaluation of the Agronomic Performance of Three Peanut Varieties (Arachis hypogea L) and Detection of Diseases

Peanut (Arachis hypogea L) is a legume widely produced in West Africa. Peanuts are of agronomic interest to producers because they are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen, making crop associations possible, especially with cereals. In Benin, soils are increasingly poor, peanut production in crop rotation can be an alternative solution. But several diseases hamper its productivity, considerably reduce leaf surfaces, affect photosynthesis by causing considerable drops in yield in addition to contamination by aflatoxin. Although peanuts fix atmospheric nitrogen, they may also require the addition of mineral elements for their development. The objectives of this study are to detection diseases in peanut fields in southern Benin and to evaluate the agronomic performance of a variety. A 3-repetition Split Splot experimental design was set up, with 2 factors. The fertilizer factor is the fixed factor and the variety factor is the variable factor. Agromorphological parameters such as germination rate, emergence and population density, 50% flowering date, and yield parameters were evaluated. Disease identification was done according to symptomatology. The results show that the germination rate in real environment is very low (5.71%) for variety 55-437 and higher than 79% for the other two varieties (ICGV, RRB). The emergence at fourteen days after sowing varies from 91.67% to 98.30% and the population density at 90 days after sowing varies from 52.38% to 62.96%. A high mortality rate is recorded on all varieties. On all varieties, a group flowering was recorded. The best yields were recorded with cow dung and compost respectively 3,88 t/ha and 3,76 t/ha. Five diseases were detected namely: early leaf spot, late leaf spot, rust, rosette and rots due to the genus Aspergilus. Our study has highlighted the various fungal and viral diseases that hamper peanut production in southern Benin.