Weed smothering efficiency of mulching types on groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.) productivity in the dry savanna region of Nigeria

In order to increase groundnut productivity, a field experiment was carried out in the dry season of 2020 to assess the effectiveness of various mulching materials at suppressing weeds. The experimental treatments comprised of five mulching types; Control (no mulch), transparent polythene mulch, black polythene mulch, rice straw mulch and saw dust mulch) and three groundnut varieties (SAMNUT 23, SAMNUT 24 and SAMNUT 26). These were factorially combined and laid out in a Randomized complete block design with three replications. Findings revealed that mulching had a significant (p < 0.05) impact on crop qualities including canopy cover, chlorophyll content, pod yield, 100 kernel weight, and groundnut kernel yield as well as weed attributes like weed cover scores, weed density, weed dry weight, and weed control efficiency in both BUK and Wasai, respectively. The weed compositions were further grouped into various families comprising Poaceae (11), Euphorbiaceae (3), Amaranthaceae (4), Asteraceae (3), Cyperaceae (2), Cucurbitaceae, and Aizoaceae, each having one species with a different level of occurrence across the two locations. On the other hand, SAMNUT 26 significantly produced higher pod (2798 & 2119) and kernel yields (1198 & 1191), although SAMNUT 23 produced a heavier 100 kernel weight (55.51 & 54.52) at BUK and Wasai, respectively. In comparison to the other mulching types, applying black polythene mulch or transparent mulch lowered weed density and dry weight by limiting the amount of sunlight that the weeds got, preventing them from growing. Therefore, for dry season production of groundnut in the Sudan savannah ecology of Nigeria, mulching with black or transparent polythene film using the SAMNUT 26 variety was found to be effective in conserving soil moisture for optimum crop growth and development, while on the other hand, weed populations were suppressed.