Relationship between aflatoxin production and soil temperature for peanuts under drought stress.

ABSTRACT A model for aflatoxin development in peanuts under drought stress was developed using data from controlled geocarposphere temperature test plots at the USDA-ARS National Peanut Research Laboratory, for the years 1985 and 1986. The geocarposphere is the top 2.54-5.08 cm soil zone where peanut pods develop. The aflatoxin contamination process was approximated by a first-order kinetics model with a growth rate dependent on daily mean geocarposphere temperature. The model was expressed in a finite-difference form for possible incorporation into plant growth models or programmable environmental data collection systems.