Agronomic Performance of Cultivars of Vignasubterranea (L.) from Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso Cultivated under different Environments

Bambara groundnut [Vignasubterranea (L.) Verdc.] is an important grain-legume. The plant is grown in diverse agro-ecological conditions.However in many of them, the yield is low according to cultivars used and the environment. This research was carried out in order to evaluate the ability of cultivars to adapt to different environments. The performance of three cultivars from Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso: Ivory seed coat (ISC); Beige red seed coat (BRC) and Black seed coat (BSC) were tested. The test was conducted in two locations representing two different agroclimatic conditions and different soil types in Côte d’Ivoire. Eleven agronomic parameters selected from the Bambara groundnut descriptor were measured: two phenological parameters, six growth and three yield parameters. There were study sites x seeds origin interaction for all cultivars. The best values of yield parameters were obtained with seeds from Burkina-faso. Evaluation of field performance showed that when cultivation was carried out in Abidjan (south), the best values of phenological parameters were observed for ISC-CI, ISC-BF and BSC-BF. Cultivar BSC-CI gave the highest values of growth parameters. The best values of seed harvest index (SHI) and seeds weight per plant (SWP) were obtained with cultivars ISC and BSC from Burkina-Faso. When experimentation was conducted in Manfla (Center), the earliest cultivars were BRC-CI; ISC-CI; ISC-BF and BSC-BF. The best growth parameters were obtained with two cultivars from Côte d’Ivoire (BRC and BSC). The best yield was obtained with cultivar ISC-BF and BSC-BF.