Genetic variability and heritability estimates of some properties of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) kernels

Knowledge of physical and mechanical properties of groundnut is essential for the design of equipment for the processing, transportation, cleaning, sorting, separation and packaging. The present study was undertaken at Dang, in the soudano-guinea zone of Cameroon, to investigate varietal differences for seed weight, geometric surface, porosity, degree of sphericity, hydration capacity and angle of repose of the kernels in 12 groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) genotypes, estimate their heritability values through simple analysis of variance, and evaluate the correlations among these parameters. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with six replicates. Analysis of variance revealed that these genotypes presented a significant variability (P?0.05) for the six physical properties. The average properties of kernels were found to be a hundred seed mass of 20.46g, a surface area of 0.84 cm2, a sphericity of 35.50%, and a porosity of 0.65, a hydration capacity of 0.42 g /seed and an angle of repose of 33.35°. These parameters were moderately to highly heritable with broad-sense heritability (h2) values ranged from 0.58 (hydration capacity) to 0.98 (seed weight). Expected genetic advance was from 4.76 to 53.52 %. Seed weight was positively correlated with surface area, degree of sphericity and porosity while the angle of repose was negatively correlated with seed weight and hydration capacity. The results of this study showed that these physical properties can be improved genetically.