Agricultural News
USDA Researchers Study how Climate Change Affects Peanut Growth
Fri, 06 Sep 2013 13:00:11 CDT
How will climate change and increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affect peanuts and their production? That's a question U.S. D.A. scientists are trying to answer.
Lewis Ziska, Research Plant Physiologist, says, "Peanuts are a very important source of protein globally and one of the things that we consistently see is that while CO2 can stimulate the growth of plants, it also tends to reduce the protein concentration. So we'd like to know how much it's reducing it and whether that's the same for different lines."
Once Ziska and his colleagues in Beltsville, Maryland, determine which lines of peanuts react well to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide leveles, they can then pass on that information to farmers.
" The bottom line for many producers is how much can I produce, how much yield can I get per acre? So, in this sense what we can try and do is take that additional CO2 and look at which varieties are responding to it, which are converting more of that CO2 into seed yield, and if we know that then we can look at those characteristics that are associated with that as part of a long-term breeding program to increase yields per acre for peanut growers in the United States and elsewhere," Ziska says.
Peanuts are an especially important part of the diet for those living in many developing countries.
"It's a major source of protein. So having a good crop of peanuts is something that if you look at what people grow globally, it isn't just that they are growing corn, it isn't just that they are growing wheat, you have to have a source of protein as well and peanut often is that source," Ziska says.
Ziska and his colleagues are also studying how increased carbon dioxide might affect peanut allergy properties and how peanut plants might help with carbon sequestration.
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