Enhancing the productivity of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) through earthening up practices at Tanqua-Abergelle district, Central Tigray, Ethiopia

Groundnut, an important crop provides significant sources of cash, oil and an important role in diets but the yield is low due to different constraints like earthening up. In this regard, this study was carried out to improve yields by identifying the best stages of earthening up practices. The experiment was conducted at Abergelle Agricultural Research Centre testing site in 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 cropping seasons. The experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. There were seven treatments of earthening up (pre-flowering, 25% flowering stage, 50% flowering stage, 75% flowering stage, 50% pegging, pre-flowering + 50% flowering + 50% peg formation and control). The analyzed variables (days to 90% maturity, biomass yield, grain yield, harvest index, 1000 seed weight, number of pods/plant and number of seeds/pod) revealed significantly difference (p=5%). The analysis of variance showed that highest yield was obtained from 50% earthening up (23 ql/ha) and lowest grain yield was observed in control/no earthening up (18 qt/ha). Generally, earthening up practices at 50% flowering stage enhances the yield of groundnut. So, it should be practiced or applied at similar agro-ecology for better yield of ground nut.   Key words: Yield, yield components, groundnut, earthening up.