Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the effect of spacing on yield of five bambara groundnut landraces under field conditions in 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 seasons. The experimental design was a split plot with bambara groundnut landraces viz NALBAM 1, NALBAM 2, NALBAM 3, NALBAM 4 NALBAM 6, as the main plot factor. Four plant populations with spacing of 50cm x 10cm, 50cm x 15cm, 60cm x 10cm, and 60cm x 15cm were subplot factor. Sowing was done in February 2012 and January 2013 at two seeds per hill and thinned to one seedling at 21 days after sowing. “Fresh consumption” and “dry grain” bambara groundnut groups were under study. The yield, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant and 100 seed weight were examined. Significant differences (P<0.05) were observed from “fresh consumption” bambara groundnut landraces.  The results indicated that the lowest spacing (50cm x 10cm) produced the highest pod yield (1023 kg ha-1) and grain yield (705 kg ha-1)    for NALBAM 1 and 1111 kg ha-1 and 771 kg ha-1   for NALBAM 2 respectively. The “dry grain” of NALBAM 2 under 60cm x 10cm had the highest pod yield (1206 kg ha-1) and grain yield (847 kg ha-1) among landraces. On the other hand, NALBAM 3 recorded significantly the highest pod yield (1447 kg ha-1) and grain yield (1007 kg ha-1) for fresh consumption landraces under spacing 60cm x 10cm. The optimum spacings for the highest pod yield was 60cm x 10cm for NALBAM 2 and 50cm x 10cm for NALBAM 1. Hence, considering the yield obtained spacings of 50cm x 10cm and or 60cm x 10cm are recommended for farmers.

Key words:  Bambara groundnut, Landraces, South Eastern Tanzania, Plant spacing, Yield.