Groundnut , which is also known by its other names like Peanut, earthnut, pygmy nut, pignuts, Goober peas in US , Monkey nut in UK and botanically termed Arachis hypogea is a self pollinated legume cultivated widely across the world in about 24 million hectare for its edible uses.
It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, being important to both small and large commercial producers with a total production of 38 million tons in 2010 (FAOSTAT, 2010) and gets increased to 44 million tons in 2016 then 47.1 million tons in 2017.
Groundnuts are classified both as a grain for food and an oil crop due to its high oil content.
Botanically groundnuts are legumes but named as nuts based on its culinary uses. As a legume, like any other legumes namely peas, beans help significantly in fixing nitrogen to the soil. And so after groundnut cultivation the soil becomes highly fertile, making them valuable in crop rotations.
Groundnut has a unique feature that makes them differ from the other legumes is its property to develop pods underground rather than above the ground like any other legumes. This feature is termed as Geocarpy. It's scientific name also denotes this nature "hypogea" means under the earth.
Groundnut plants are initially endemic to South America. It is believed through research and investigations that groundnuts are most probably domesticated and cultivated in the valleys of paraguay. Over time, like any other countries it gets cultivated also in India for its multi uses.
There exist so many cultivar varieties which are cultivated around the world. Of these, the most popular varieties in the US are Runner group, Spanish group, Virginia group, Valencia group, Tennessee red and Tennessee white.
Indian groundnut varieties:
Considering India ,the second largest producer of best quality groundnut in the world are having the groundnut cultivars include Kadiri-2, Kadiri-3, BG-1, BG-2, Kuber , GAUG-1, GAUG-10, PG-1 , T-28, T-64, Chandra, Chitra, Kaushal, Parkash, Amber etc. These Indian groundnut varieties are classified under three major groups such as Bold, Java and Red Natal.
Groundnuts were originally considered to be food for animals; then they were used as food for slaves in western countries . They have now become an important source of protein in many developing countries. But in India, knowing its high health benefits, groundnuts were highly used in Indian cuisines as grains and as cooking oil right from the ancient times. By-products such as hays, silages and oil cakes were used as fodder for cattles.
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