Ojelade et al. / Advances in Agricultural Science 6 (2018), 04: 01-11 A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Received: March 03, 2018 Revised: June 18, 2018 Accepted: July 20, 2018 Available online: December 15, 2018 A study was conducted at Teaching and Research farm of Bayero University Kano, Nigeria, to determine the combining ability of 48 single cross hybrids of groundnut which were generated using a 6 × 8 line by tester mating design. The crosses were laid out in an 8 × 6 randomized Incomplete Block Design. Data were collected on phenological and agronomic traits. The results revealed significant variability for line, tester, and line × tester effects for some of the studied traits. Non-additive gene action was more than additive gene action in the inheritance of majority of studied traits. IGG- X 4 had the best GCA for pod weight among the set of genotype studied. The cross, ICGV-SM 07539 x ICG 3584 had highest SCA value for pod dry weight, number of pod per plant, number of seed per pod and number of matured pods. Therefore, these traits could be improved by selection of crosses with high SCA effects. Furthermore, parents with good per se performance and significant GCA effects for some traits can also be selected as testers for future breeding programs. The study indicated the importance of yield components like number of pods per plant and pod dry weight in breeding programs intended to improve yield of groundnut genotypes. © 2018 Shaibu et al. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Keywords: Combining ability Gene action Groundnut Yield components * Corresponding Author; E. Mail: asshuaibu.agr@buk.edu.ng Introduction roundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) also known as peanut is a member of the genus Arachis in the family leguminosae (Fabacaea) which has replaced the traditional bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean) in many areas of the country (Ashley, 1993). It is cultivated in 108 countries on about 22.2 million hectares, of which 13.69 million ha are in Asia (India 8 million ha; China 3.84millionha), 7.39 million ha in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 0.7 million ha in Central and South America. The uses of groundnut are diverse; all parts of the plant can be used. The nut (kernel) is a rich source of edible oil, containing 36 to 54% oil and 25 to 32% protein (Patil et al., 2017). It is part of the mainstay to livelihood of millions of small- holder farmers residing in semi-arid tropic (SAT) regions of the world. The largest producers of groundnut are China and India, followed by the USA. In Africa, Nigeria is the largest producers of groundnut (2.96 million tons, 7.67%) followed by the United Republic of Tanzania (0.65 million tons, 1.69%) (Upadhyaya et al., 2014). There was a substantial increase in global groundnut production by about 5 m tons in 2013, taking the G Advances in Agricultural Science Volume 6 (2018), Issue 04, 12-18 Journal homepage: www.aaasjournal.org ISSN: 2588-3801 Combining Ability Analysis for Growth and Yield Components of Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) in Sudan Savannah Abdulwahab Saliu Shaibu 1* , Faiza Yusuf Mustapha 1 , Babu N Motagi 2 1 Department of Agronomy, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria. 2 Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Agriculture College, University of Agricultural Science, Dharwad, India. Research Article Open Access