The Peanut [Kacang], also known as the groundnut is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics environments, being valuable to both small and large commercial exporters. It is classified as both a grain legume and, because of its high oil content, an oil crop. World annual production of shelled peanuts was 42 million tonnes in 2014. Atypically among crop plants, peanut pods develop underground rather than aboveground. It is this characteristic that the botanist Linnaeus used to assign the specific name hypogaea, which means “under the earth.”
As a legume, the peanut belongs to the botanical family Fabaceae; this is also known as Leguminosae, and commonly known as the bean, or pea, family. Like most other legumes, peanuts [Đậu phụng] harbor symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in root nodules.
This capacity to fix nitrogen means peanuts require less nitrogen-containing fertilizer and improve soil fertility, making them valuable in crop rotations.
