Plant spacing is a very important agronomical practice in legume production. Spacing is about the number of crops planted in a unit area and the distance between one plant and another. With reducing arable lands as a result of climate change, farmers want to fully exploit their land by getting the best yields from improve groundnut varieties and at the same time sustain the productivity of their farms. A field experiment was conducted to examine the effect of groundnut varieties and optimum plant spacing on grain and fodder yield. The seven groundnut varieties included Azivivi, Chinese, Obolo, Manipinta, Samnut 22, Samnut 23, and Yenyawoso, each of them spaced (between rows x between seeds within a row) at sowing 30 cm x 15 cm, 45 cm x 15 cm, 60 cm x 15 cm, and 75 cm x 15 cm. The experiment was laid at Samboligo in the Upper East region of Ghana. Groundnut varieties and plant spacing, a factorial 7 x 4 were arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replicates. Other grain yield and fodder production components measured were plant height, canopy spread, stem girth, nodules per plant, and number of pods per plant. Groundnut variety and plant spacing had significant effect on grain and fodder yields. Plant spacing had no effect on plant height, canopy spread, stem girth and nodules per plant but significantly affected the number of pods per plant. Variety ‘Manipinta’ recorded the highest grain yield (1435.42 kg ha-1) and Obolo the highest fodder yield (1451.04 kg ha-1). Variety Obolo sown at 75 cm x 15 cm was the highest fodder yielding combination and variety Chinese at 30 cm x 15 cm recorded the highest grain yield.

Keywords: Dry matter, grain yield, groundnut, planting spacing and cultivar