Historical Context
The Act of Foundation of CIAT was signed on 17 October, 1967. The first research
programs were established in 1969, including one on legumes. This program was almost
nominal; it had no staff, except for a Coordinator who was a CIAT Director. Legumes were
merely another research component of the Agronomic Systems Supporting Program that worked
with bean, soybean, cowpea, and mung bean. In May 1972, CIAT’s Board of Trustees
approved research on beans. In October of that year, the first bean team was organized and
a world symposium on potential of field beans was held in Cali, Colombia, in February
1973, supporting the Board’s proposal. This meeting marked the beginning of
CIAT’s Bean Program, as textually recorded in CIAT’s Annual Report 1973, page 5:
"CIAT’s program in field beans was launched in February with an international
seminar which explored the potentials of field beans and other food legumes in Latin
America." The bean research team formally initiated its tasks in 1973 within the Bean
Production Systems Program. In 1977, the approach changed, with the establishment of the
Bean Program, to one of a multidisciplinary orientation that was retained until 1996. As
of 1997, research was based on two broad projects: Project IP-1 (Bean Improvement for
Sustainable Productivity, Input Use Efficiency, and Poverty Alleviation) and Project IP-2
(Meeting Demand for Beans in sub-Saharan Africa in Sustainable Ways).
The Bean Program was the first CIAT program to establish regional
programs and also the first to turn its management over to
national programs. The Regional Collaborative Bean Program
for Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean (PROFRIJOL)
was launched in 1978 with the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP)
funding and, as of 1980, has been supported by the Swiss Development
cooperation (SDC).
The Regional Bean Program for the Andean Zone (PROFRIZA) operated
between 1980 and 1999 under the auspices of the SDC. CIAT
ceased coordinating PROFRIJOL in 1987 and PROFRIZA in 1998.
PROFRIJOL will operate as a foundation as of year 2001, whereas
PROFRIZA, as of year 2000, will operate through bilateral
arrangements between the SDC and member countries. Regional
programs for Africa were launched in 1983 with the creation
of the Great Lakes Regional Program in Central Africa, financed
by the SDC. In 1984, the Regional Program for Eastern Africa,
financed by the Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA)
and the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID),
was launched.
Distribution Channels
Finished materials: Advanced lines, varieties, gene bank accessions
Before 1976, the Bean Program occasionally distributed germplasm and sources of
resistance to rust, and made shipments on behalf of the germplasm bank. The systematic
distribution of germplasm began in 1976, after the CIAT’s Board of Trustees endorsed,
in 1975, a proposal by the Technical advisory Committee (TAC) that the Bean Program
coordinate the establishment of a Latin American research network. This network began
operating in 1976, which was when the orderly distribution of finished materials began
through the International Bean Yield and Adaptation Nursery (IBYAN).
During the first 2 years, IBYAN distributed only varieties from national programs and
promising materials from the germplasm bank. Advanced CIAT lines, which increasingly
occupied a large part of the nursery, began being distributed as of 1978. In Central
America and the Caribbean, as of the mid-1980s, the regional observation nurseries (VICAR
and VICARIBE) and the yield trial nurseries (ECAR) began replacing IBYAN in the region as
the largest supplier of finished materials. The same happened in Africa, as the regional
AFBYAN nursery became an important source of distribution of improved germplasm for that
continent.
As IBYAN declined as the main distribution channel of finished materials from CIAT
headquarters, the Bean Team Nursery, better known by its Spanish acronym, VEF, gradually
entered the scene. This observation nursery, which contained a large number of lines
(>1500) of diverse origins (CIAT and national programs) of all market classes, was
widely accepted. The VEF later changed its name to IBN (International Bean Nursery). The
last IBN corresponded to 1996.
Early Generation Lines
In 1975, the first hybridizations were conducted at CIAT. By 1978, the generation of
segregating populations and improved advanced lines was functioning adequately. CIAT
therefore organized the work of the three bean breeders in a sequential scheme of
germplasm evaluation and distribution (VEF-EP-IBYAN). The process worked as follows.
The advanced lines (hereinafter referred to as F4)
were evaluated under the VEF-EP (at the national level)-IBYAN (at the international level)
scheme. Early generations, in contrast, were handled through a regional division. Breeder
I generated materials for Central America and the Mexican humid tropics; breeder II for
the Andean Region, the Caribbean, and Africa; and breeder III, for Brazil, northwest
Argentina, the semiarid areas of Mexico, and western Asia. Each breeder made the necessary
contacts with breeders of the targeted regions to support them in developing bean
populations according to specific requests and to provide them with sources of resistance
to major production constraints. One golden rule followed was that no breeder would send
early generation materials to countries outside his or her work areas to avoid
overwhelming national programs with huge amounts of genetic material still being
developed.
To benefit national programs with the materials produced by the three breeders, the
Program established that all three should deliver their best F4s
to be evaluated for one year in the VEF by the entire bean team (pathologist,
entomologist, virologist, plant physiologist, and agronomist). Evaluations were conducted
in both field and greenhouse. The best-performing VEF materials continued on to
preliminary yield trials (EP), which, at the same time, served as a basis for selecting
those lines that would enter the IBYAN. The three nurseries were at the disposal of the
national programs that, accordingly, received the best advanced materials of the three
CIAT bean breeders. As of 1994, the breeders’ geographical responsibility gave way to
task division based on the genetic diversity of beans: one breeder was in charge of beans
of Mesoamerican origin and another of beans of Andean origin. The VEF(IBN)-EP-IBYAN scheme
ceased operating in 1996. |
