Bean
Germplasm
 Since
the mid-1980s, CIAT scientists have introduced improved bean
seeds from tropical America-where the crop has its two natural
centers of genetic diversity-into the midaltitude and highland
areas of central, eastern, and southern Africa.
This work takes place through the national R&D programs
that make up the Pan-African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA).
The alliance encompasses the Eastern and Central Africa Bean
Research Network (ECABREN)
and the Southern Africa Bean Research Network (SABRN). These
networks, in turn, belong to two regional organizations-the
Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern
and Central Africa (ASARECA)
and the Southern Africa Development Council (SADC). The networks
receive financial support through a donor consortium that
includes the Canadian, Swiss, and US governments.
Nutritionists characterize the common bean as a nearly perfect
food because of its high protein content and generous amounts
of fiber, complex carbohydrates, and other dietary necessities.
New varieties thus offer a powerful means of combating malnutrition
in the region. Moreover, as Africa's cities expand, market
demand for beans is rising rapidly, creating opportunities
for farmers to increase their incomes by producing both grain
and high-quality seed. And since the crop is grown mainly
by small women farmers, they reap most of the benefits.
Among the first improved beans to win African farmers' allegiance
were climbing types of Mexican origin. Introduced in Rwanda
during the mid-1980s, the new seeds had been adopted a decade
later by about half of Rwandan farmers. High yielding and
resistant to disease, climbing beans offered the ideal food
solution for a densely populated, land-scarce country.
By means of the regional bean networks, which feature innovative
seed systems, climbing bean varieties have since spread to
Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
Elsewhere in the region, new bush-type bean varieties are
also strengthening food security and helping farmers cater
to markets.
To provide African partners with new options for helping
farmers, CIAT scientists are developing beans with tolerance
to drought and low soil fertility. They are also identifying
bean germplasm with higher iron and zinc content, as part
of a new multi-institutional program of the CGIAR to reduce
micronutrient deficiency, which mainly afflicts women and
children. If, as bean geneticists expect, the content of these
micronutrients can be increased by 50 percent, the nearly
perfect food will do even more to improve human nutrition
in Africa and elsewhere.
To also help farmers become more competitive, the African
bean networks have adopted a new market-driven strategy for
bean breeding. Through partnerships between national research
institutes, universities, farmer associations, private companies,
and NGOs, the networks are tailoring new varieties more closely
to the diverse demands of local food markets, inter-African
trade, and more distant export markets.
Contact
Paul
Kimani
E-mail:
p.kimani@cgiar.org
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Related Web Sites
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starchy root crop is vital for Africa's food security and
also presents new options for linking small farmers to markets
through value-added processing. To help strengthen and broaden
the crop's development role on this continent, CIAT cassava
scientists have built an active program of breeding and germplasm
exchange in collaboration with national partners and the Nigeria-based
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (
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experience in Latin America and Southeast Asia has shown that
improved tropical forage grasses and legumes (some of them
derived from materials indigenous to Africa) are highly effective
for intensifying small-scale livestock production, while at
the same time protecting soil and other natural resources.
Their appeal to farmers lies in their high productivity and
nutritional value and adaptation to stresses, such as drought
and acid soils.