Partnerships to advance global peanut research
(From L-R) Drs Dave Hoisington, Jeff Johnson, Nora Lapitan, D Bertioli, J Pasupuleti, D Jordan and D Fonceka. Photo: Bob Parker, National Peanut Board of the US
Highlighting the importance of partnerships to advance global groundnut research, a mini symposium organized at the Auburn University, Alabama, USA, explored new tools to empower breeding.
‘Synergies from US Global Research Partnership’ which was aimed at signifying the benefits of working with international partners, was held on the sidelines of the 51st Annual Meeting of American Peanut Research Education Society (APRES). The Symposium was co-hosted by Dr Dave Hoisington, Director of Feed-the-Future Innovation Lab for Peanut (FtFPIL) and Dr Rich Brandenburg, President, APRES.
Dr Nora Lapitan, Division Chief of Research in the Bureau for Food Security at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), illustrated past and current international collaborations and the agenda to modernize breeding programs under the Crops to End Hunger (CtEH) program. She noted the lead taken by the peanut breeding team at ICRISAT in moving forward with new tools to enhance efficiencies of the breeding program.
“The research collaboration with US researchers to use genomic tools resulted in the development of high oleic peanut varieties that were commercialized recently in India,” said Dr Janila Pasupuleti, Principal Scientist – Groundnut Breeding, ICRISAT.
Dr David Jordan from the North Carolina State University, USA, discussed the benefits of international collaborations with the US researchers, and Mr Jeff Johnson, President emeritus, Birdsong Peanuts, detailed the potential of peanut to meet protein needs of the growing populations. Dr David Bertioli from the University of Georgia, USA, and Dr Daniel Fonceka from the CIRAD/ Centre d’études régional pour l’amélioration de l’adaptation à la sécheresse (CERAAS), Senegal, together with Dr Pasupuleti, detailed how sharing of germplasm contributed to the improvement of target traits, particularly resistance.
