Wild About Peanuts – Using Crop Wild Relatives To Improve Today’s Crops

Sep 27, 2022

By Susan V. Fisk

However you eat your peanuts – shelled, salted, or in a favorite mix – they are a snack item enjoyed by many. The peanut we eat is technically a seed, and they also are a rich source of oils. An obstacle this crop faces, however, is a variety of plant diseases that reduce yields. In the September 22^nd Sustainable, Secure Food Blog, crop breeders discover a new variety of peanut that is disease-resistant, with help from crop wild relatives.

Crop wild relatives are the ancient ancestors of today’s cultivated crops. And even today, they live on in various harsh locations – deserts, roadside ditches. Places where they look like “weeds.” But really, these crop wild relatives contain important genetic information for today’s crop breeders. Crop breeders at the University of Georgia recently released a new variety of peanut that is disease-resistant thanks to help from the crop wild relative of peanut. The team looked for ways to make it possible to use the genetic material of the wild relative of peanut to improve disease resistance in modern peanut varieties.

The team used seeds provided by the United States Department of Agriculture to grow small plants and took cuttings. They treated these cuttings with a chemical called “colchicine” – chemicals are often used by breeders for many reasons. The good news? The team was able to breed new peanut varieties that had resistance to common leaf rusts (a fungal disease).

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Video: Dicamba Returns for Georgia Farmers: What the New EPA Ruling Means for Cotton Growers

After being unavailable in 2024 due to registration issues, dicamba products are returning for Georgia farmers this growing season — but under strict new conditions.

In this report from Tifton, Extension Weed Specialist Stanley Culpepper explains the updated EPA ruling, including new application limits, mandatory training requirements, and the need for a restricted use pesticide license. Among the key changes: a cap of two ½-pound applications per year and the required use of an approved volatility reduction agent with every application.

For Georgia cotton producers, the ruling is significant. According to Taylor Sills with the Georgia Cotton Commission, the vast majority of cotton planted in the state carries the dicamba-tolerant trait — meaning farmers had been paying for technology they couldn’t use.

While environmental groups have expressed concerns over spray drift, Georgia growers have reduced off-target pesticide movement by more than 91% over the past decade. Still, this two-year registration period will come with increased scrutiny, making stewardship and compliance more important than ever.