The purpose of this project is to develop recommendations for peanut growers relative to the decisions they will make on variety selection, fertilizer applications, regulation of plant growth, and harvesting. This project will also help growers improve pest management by developing new strategies and refinement of currently accepted integrated pest management (IPM) strategies. Controlling Palmer amaranth and other problematic weeds in peanut is important to obtain optimum yields and this project will include herbicide evaluations and their interaction with cultural practices. Knowing the impact of cropping systems on peanut yield and economic return in the entire production system will help growers make informed decisions on crop mixes given fluctuations in crop prices. This project will define important interactions so that growers will know how to manage pests in peanuts given their previous rotation strategies. Determining when to dig peanut is one of the most important decisions a peanut grower will make during the season. With expansion in peanut production across North Carolina and presence of Cooperative Extension Agents and other people in agribusiness with limited experience with peanut, assistance with pod maturity clinics prior to harvest is essential. Funds requested for this project will be used to address important issues faced by virtually all peanut growers. Active engagement of Cooperative Extension Service agents in problem solving will also be included in this project.

This proposal focuses on the evaluation of complete production systems based on previous research conducted in the region through national research institutes, ICRISAT, and as a part of the previous Peanut and Mycotoxin Innovation Lab on individual treatments effects. This project will investigate the investment in multiple interventions and the return on those investments relative to yield, quality, costs, and aflatoxin contamination. The goal is to develop profitable and sustainable peanut production practices that offer incremental steps with inputs and interventions. Previous research on planting and harvest dates, plant populations and row spacing as well as inoculant, gypsum and pest management inputs have documented individual treatment benefits. The next logical step is to package these practices into whole program across numerous cultivars and measure the cumulative effects in a stepwise manner. This will reveal detailed overall and individual impacts in a system to provide insight into the value of each intervention for yield, profitability, and aflatoxin contamination at both the smallholder and corporate farm level.

The project will include four objectives designed to: 1) demonstrate the value of improved production and pest management practices with currently available cultivars and elite varieties that have been recently released; 2) develop a local seed supply chain at the village level that improves quality, seed purity and maintains genetic potential of elite varieties; 3) demonstrate the benefits of cropping sequence and intensity on yield and economic return of peanut, maize, and other appropriate crops in the region; and 4) validate the pest management risk tool developed for Ghana in the commissioned project. Practices that will be demonstrated in villages will build on previous research findings and experiences with Peanut CRSP and PMIL. Successful completion of this project will increase yield and quality of peanut and economic return for farmers through the use of improved varieties and pest management practices. The risk tool will improve food safety through improved practices that minimize aflatoxin production.

Growers often prefer to see results from large-scale, on-farm research that are developed locally to assist them with management decisions. The research community also has demonstrated that using larger plots often leads to better results from testing. The challenge has always been land and resource allocation needed to compare many treatments and treatment combinations. Small-plot testing has been an effective option and is reflective of treatment differences in some but not all instances. To address the need to compare some treatments in larger plots, the NCPGA, Extension Administration, faculty in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, and several agribusiness companies purchased a dump cart with the capacity to weigh large quantities of peanuts in the field and dump peanuts into large, tractor trailers. A second dump cart is being manufactured and will be purchased by NC State University using funds from the NCPGA, Extension Administration and the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. These two pieces of equipment will facilitate a greater number of experiments with larger plots and will result in a greater number of Extension agents conducting on-farm research. The dump cart was used to harvest peanuts in 10 replicated trials in 2021 and 12 trials in 2022. The goal in 2023 is to expand research to additional counties. Extension specialists and agents will coordinate approximately 25 trials in 2023 comparing varieties, pest management treatments and plant growth regulators based on discussions in spring 2023. The NCPGA will also provide input into what comparisons need to be made. A shift away from small-plot research at the Border Belt Tobacco Research Station associated with Southeastern North Carolina Peanut Field Day to a plot tour with on-farm tests in this region of the state is expected. The dump cart will be used to collect yield data from trials associated with 71st North Carolina Peanut Field Day (Lewiston-Woodville), the 12th Southeastern North Carolina Peanut Field Day and Plot Tour (various locations in central and southeastern North Carolina), 2023 CHROME Field Day (Bertie County), 2023 Northeast Ag Expo (Gates County), and 2nd Late-Season Peanut Disease and Harvest Tour.

The development of new insecticides in peanuts has been limited in recent years. There is a dire need for new products against rootworms and spider mites. The fear of insecticide resistance and the recent loss of older products (Lorsban��) makes the need to investigate new products more critical. The threat of new pests such as burrower bugs also requires the development of more robust insect management strategies than currently exist. Insecticide development is not only prohibited by the cost of registering new insecticides, inconsistent insect infestations that limit the use of some products in certain years, but also the comparatively small acreage for peanuts. As a result, peanuts are considered a low priority for new insecticide products and the companies have provided very little funding to support peanut insecticide research. We do have very specific needs for further insecticide evaluations to update cost-effective insect control in North Carolina peanuts. This project will provide an increased evaluation of recently developed products beyond what the agrichemical industry has been willing to support the past ten years. Currently, peanut entomology is in a time of transition from the leadership of Rick Brandenburg (now on phased retirement) into a maintenance phase to keep the program viable until the position is refilled. The key element is keeping Brian Royals employed and on task conducting numerous trials to solve the continuing insect management concerns while maintaining program productivity. Funding for this project will be combined with limited agrichemical industry funding to further build a viable screening program by funding a portion of a technician���s salary, and vehicle fuel and maintenance costs.

The purpose of this project is to develop recommendations for peanut growers relative to the decisions they will make on variety selection, fertilizer applications, regulation of plant growth, and harvesting. This project will also help growers improve pest management by developing new strategies and refinement of currently accepted integrated pest management (IPM) strategies. Controlling Palmer amaranth and other problematic weeds in peanut is important to obtain optimum yields and this project will include herbicide evaluations and their interaction with cultural practices. Knowing the impact of cropping systems on peanut yield and economic return in the entire production system will help growers make informed decisions on crop mixes given fluctuations in crop prices. This project will define important interactions so that growers will know how to manage pests in peanuts given their previous rotation strategies. Determining when to dig peanut is one of the most important decisions a peanut grower will make during the season. With expansion in peanut production across North Carolina and presence of Cooperative Extension agents and other people in agribusiness with limited experience with peanut, assistance with pod maturity clinics prior to harvest is essential. Funds requested for this project will be used to address important issues faced by virtually all peanut growers. Active engagement of Cooperative Extension Service agents in problem solving will also be included in this project.

Plant breeders systematically reduce breeding populations and lines towards cultivar release through plant selections from within and among family-lines and then based on their performance during standardized testing in multiple environments. The criteria can include marker-assisted selection for traits of interest; progeny row and line evaluations for disease incidence; quality traits for consumers; and yield. In peanut, the narrowing of breeding lines tested leads towards release of a cultivar regionally adapted to withstand a number of abiotic and biotic stressors, improved pod and seed characteristics and heightened sensory and quality characteristics; while providing higher yields than previously released lines. One form of testing notably missing during these evaluations is the performance of lines nearing the end stages of development for on-farm management practices. Growers might use similar cultural practices and level of disease mitigation regardless of the cultivar grown. Understanding the interactions of spray programs relative to these lines may reduce input costs for growers and influence lines released from the North Carolina State University (NCSU) peanut breeding program. Furthermore, the additional testing will provide NCSU extension specialists valuable information to encourage growers to adapt cultural practices for a cultivar before the line is released.

Growers often prefer to see results from large-scale, on-farm research that are developed locally to assist them with management decisions. The research community also has demonstrated that using larger plots often leads to better results from testing. The challenge has always been land and resource allocation needed to compare many treatments and treatment combinations. Small-plot testing has been an effective option and is reflective of treatment differences in some but not all instances. To address the need to compare some treatments in larger plots, the NCPGA, Extension Administration, faculty in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, and several agribusiness companies purchased a dump cart with the capacity to weigh large quantities of peanuts in the field and dump peanuts into large, tractor trailers. This equipment will facilitate a greater number of experiments with larger plots and will result in a greater number of Extension agents conducting on-farm research. The dump cart was built in spring 2021 and was used to harvest peanuts in replicated trials in five counties (10 trials). The goal in 2022 is to expand research to additional counties. Extension specialists and agents will coordinate approximately 15 trials in 2022 comparing varieties, pest management treatments and plant growth regulators based on discussions in spring 2022. The NCPGA will also provide input into what comparisons need to be made.

The development of new insecticides in peanuts has been limited in recent years. The fear of insecticide resistance and the recent loss of older products (Lorsban��) makes the need to investigate new products more critical. The threat of new pests such as burrowing bug also requires the development of more robust insect management strategies than currently exist. Insecticide development is not only prohibited by the cost of registering new insecticides, inconsistent insect infestations that limit the use of some products in certain years, but also the comparatively small acreage for peanuts. As a result, peanuts are considered a low priority for new insecticide products and the companies have provided very little funding to support peanut insecticide research. We do have very specific needs for further insecticide evaluations to update cost effective insect control in North Carolina peanuts.

Aflatoxin contamination in maize and peanut is often correlated to yield as both are significantly impacted by drought. Previous studies by Lobell and Burke (see references) have documented the use of satellite images to assess maize yield and plant responses in Africa. The ability to determine yield is valuable but if we use that ability to indirectly forecast aflatoxin contamination levels and guide the use interventions, then even greater value is achieved. The anticipated relationship is focused on drought, yield, and aflatoxin. A collaborative link with an active program at the Center on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University provides an opportunity to test that link with ground data. Current relationships with existing USAID programs, corporate farms and research institutions in Malawi provide a unique opportunity to obtain data from numerous of locations throughout Malawi and allow collaborators in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University to provide the satellite image assessment. This information can be linked with the decision/risk tools that are proposed in another PIL project to improve decision making and the deployment of actions to minimize aflatoxin contamination. Overall, this approach can provide faster and more accurate risk assessments. As stated by Burke and Lobell (2017) ����������������Such datasets could rapidly accelerate learning about which interventions in smallholder systems have the most positive impact, thus enabling more rapid transformation of rural households.���������������