Beans and Eco-efficiency in a Changing Environment

Beans and Eco-efficiency in a Changing Environment

Any real change?

Or old wine in new bottles?

What changing environment?

BIOPHYSICAL• Climate change

• Soil degradation

• Demand for green solutions

• Rising costs …– Fertilizer

SOCIAL

• More acute poverty?

• HIV / AIDS

• Urbanization – Advanced in LAC– Advancing in Africa

Our mission:

FOOD SECURITY

INCOME

GENERATION

Now…

FOOD SECURITY

INCOME

GENERATION

Eco-efficiency

Or…

FOOD SECURITY

INCOME

GENERATION

ECO-EFFICIENCY

Bean Researchers

• Breeding/Genetic resources– S. Beebe– P. Kimani– R. Chirwa– D.G. Debouck

• Pathology– R. Buruchara– G. Mosquera

• Biotechnology– M. Blair – M. Ishitani– J. Tohme

• Physiology– I.M. Rao

• Seed systems– L. Sperling– J.C. Rubyogo

• Human Nutrition– H. Pachon– M. Nyagaya

• M & E – R. Muthoni

• Economics– E. Katungi

• Markets– E. Birachi– D. Wetaka

Gene pools of Common Bean

Tertiary pool

WW CC

WW CC

WW CC

P. lunatus

P. acutifolius

= Wild and cultivated forms

P. parvifolius

Secondary pool

WW CC

P. coccineus

- P. dumosus

WW CC

P. vulgaris

WW CC

Primary pool

Mesoamerican Andean

P. costaricensis WW

WW

WW CC WW CC

P. vulgaris

Common Bean…often associated with higher human population

Outputs in the MTP

• Output 1: Beans with improved micronutrient concentration that have a positive impact on human health

• Output 2: Beans and technologies that improve productivity under low input agriculture of poor farmers

• Output 3: Innovative approaches for Reaching End Users with eco-efficient technologies

Output 1: Nutrition

• Biofortification – economically viable– Conventional breeding– Gene discovery

• Goals for Beans– 90-100% more iron – 40% more zinc

• Targets– Rwanda and DRC under HarvestPlus– Other PABRA countries – Central America, Caribbean, Brazil

Lines with 40-80% more iron

Meso-American

(interspecific)

AndeanFEB 226-parent

PABRA: Support to PLWHA

• Nutrition!

• Beans that are less labor intensive, and high yielding

• Semi-climbers! (race Durango)– Rustic – Weed competition– High yield– Not commercial but food security item

Latin America – a laboratory for linking agriculture and nutrition?

• All the problems in the world– Poverty + undernutrition– Urbanization +

overnutrition

• Beans are traditional

• Beans are healthy– Cardiovascular disease– Diabetes– Cancer

• Institutional support – Latin American

Nutritionist Society– Ministers of Agriculture

• Post-harvest processing and industry involvement – EMBRAPA– CLAYUCA

The challenge of Latin America:Maintaining bean consumption

• To not lose a healthy habit

• How ? More attention to consumer traits…?– Flavor?– Flatulence?– Canning?– Cooking time?

Energy use for Food - USA

Source: University of Michigan, Center for Sustainable Systems (http://www.umich.edu/~css)

Processing (15.8%)

Agricultural production (20.8%)

Home preparation (19%)

Home refrigeration (12.7%)

Transport (13.9%)

Food retail (4.0%)

Restaurants (6.9%)

Packaging (6.9%)

Shorter Cooking time

• Energy for Cooking: – Probably even greater proportion of energy

in developing countries

• A common request from rural producers / housewives

• Output 2: Beans and technologies that improve productivity under low input agriculture of poor farmers

Andy Jarvis’ ever-popular Stipple map

(Drier)

mm day-1

(Wetter)

More rain, more root rots and foliar diseases

Less rain,

more insect pests

Climate change, pests and diseases

White flies

…and changing distributions!

Stem maggot

P. dumosusFEB 226-parent

Rain-tolerant interspecific lines

(1200 mm in 90 days)

Climate change and Drought

(Drier)

mm day-1

(Wetter)

IMPROVED DROUGHT

RESISTANCE(GCP / TL-1 / TL-2 / BMZ /

RedSICTA)

=

+

Good Grain Filling

Deep roots

Yield potential (kg/ha) of drought resistant Mesoamerican lines

DroughtFavorable environments

Days to maturePAL QUIL POP

SER 102 888* 3352 3069* 2035 71**

SER 109 1107* 3185 2286 2238* 71**

SER 113 1025** 3710* 3195** 2253* 73**

Check 347 3081 2505 1626 76

*, ** = significant at P=0.05, 0.01

Our hypothesis: Some drought resistance genes contribute to plant yield efficiency, and are useful across environments

Yield potential of drought-selected Andean beans(Daríén, 1400 masl)

CALIMA

AFR298

COS16

SAB560

CALIMA

AFR298COS16

CALIMA

AFR298

COS16CALIMA

AFR298

COS16

AFR298

ABA36

720

721722

739

723724

725

726

727

728

729

730

636

637638

639

640

641

642

643

644

645

646

647

648649

650

651

652

653654

655

616

656

617

657

658

659

660

618

661

662

663

619

664

665

666667731

732

668

669

620

670

671

621

672

673

674

622

675

676

677

623678

679

680

681

624

682

625683626684

685

627

686

733

687

688689

690

628

691

692

693

629

694

695

630

696

631

632

697 698

699700

633

701

702

703704

734

705

706

735

736

707

708

709

710

737738

711

712

713

634

714 715

716

717

718

719

900

1200

1500

1800

2100

2400

2700

3000Y

ield

(K

g/H

a) SAB linesA - Red mottled and other beansB - Red mottled beansC - Red beansD - Cream striped beans E - White beans Control GenotypesCalima - Red Mottled beanAFR298 - Red beanCOS16 - Cream Striped bean ABA36 - White bean

A B

C

D

E

LSD*: 534 LSD*: 560 LSD*: 498 LSD*: 402 LSD*: 512

* Least Signif icant Difference Kg/Ha (p=0.05)

The Germplasm in Bernard’s

ISFM Equation

• A dynamic component!

Dealing with poor soils:

25 cm

P. coccineus

SER 16

SER 16 x (SER 16 x G35346)

Aluminum resistance:

Improving common bean with

P. coccineus*

* Ph.D. thesis, Louis Butare, ISAR, Rwanda

To exploit P. coccineus and P. dumosus that have excessive biomass...

Yield under Intermittent drought

Kg / ha Maturity Yield / d

Interspp. lines

ALB 205 3199 68 47

ALB 167 3174 69 46

ALB 213 3029 67 45

Drought res. checks

SER 16 2520 63 40

BAT 477 2165 68 32

• Cross with parents of high harvest index like SER 16

• Biomass + translocation efficiency

= Improved Yield

Fertilizer Use EfficiencyCIAT pioneered root studies for P uptake

with Jonathan Lynch…

Tio Canela

SXB 412

…and large differences exist in the field

…we need to exploit research findings systematically

An experienced team in root biology

Nitrogen fixation in Heat Nitrogen fixation in Heat Tolerant climbing beans for Tolerant climbing beans for

AfricaAfrica

CLIMBERS

• An early PABRA success

• Continuing demand

Options for Nitrogen Fixation

• Climbers – Sometimes limited by stakes, labor

• Semi-climbers? (Type 3)– Source of high SNF (Puebla 152)– Rustic

Output 3: Innovative approaches for Reaching End Users

• PABRA - Wider Impact – Estimated 8 M families in 4 years– Marshalling partnerships in new organizational

models (e.g., public-private)– Research at the output-outcome interface

• Novel seed marketing• Reaching the HARD to reach

• Central America and Colombia – Surprising interest– Especially in biofortified crops

• Linking bean farmers to market niches

– Ethiopia and Peru leading the pack, followed by Uganda, Nicaragua, Bolivia

The other side of the coin: Energy use and production close to

consumption• 4 largest exporting countries move > 1.6 M tons

annually, for >US$ 250M in transport– Does it make sense to ship beans from China to Africa?

• Can we increase production closer to consumption?– Mexico City– Kinshasa– Nairobi

• We won’t convince anyone not to export…

• but we need to understand relative competitiveness of exporting / importing countries, and what we can contribute

Conclusion

So is anything new?…

• Efficient exploitation of interspecific crosses

• Working energy considerations into research prioritization

• Renewed focus on efficient plant nutrition (N and P)

• More consumer traits • New approaches for reaching end users

Conclusion

• But you don’t necessarily need to do something different to change…

• As important as WHAT you do, is…– Where you target– In what social context– For whom

Muchas gracias

Bio-fortified Beans