Plant · P-249

Bambara Groundnut

Vigna subterranea

Bambara groundnut is the drought crop of this group, producing a food-grade seed on ground too poor and too dry for peanut or soybean - it is the third most eaten legume in Africa after groundnut and cowpea, a genuine staple candidate rather than a novelty. Its whole seed carries an amino acid profile comparable to soybean, though it must be boiled or roasted before eating; raw seed carries more trypsin inhibitor than soybean, along with phytate and tannin, and choosing a cream-seeded variety keeps the tannin lowest. Its pods swell underground exactly like peanut's, so it needs the same loose, sandy, unlimed bed rather than heavy alkaline clay - the crop tolerates the heat easily but sulks on calcareous ground. Once the pods are lifted, goats can graze the haulm directly off the row, a cleaner arrangement than peanut allows.