March 2015 In This Newsletter P.1 Success Stories P.2 SIL Virtual Workshop: Low-Latitude Soybeans Meet a SIL Researcher & Collaborator Our Mission The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Soybean Value Chain Research is USAID's only comprehensive program dedicated to soybean research for development. Our international team of tropical soybean experts provides direct technical support to researchers, private sector firms, non-governmental organizations, extensionists, agronomists, economists, and technicians tasked with soybean development. Contact Us Dr. Peter Goldsmith Principal Investigator [email protected] (217) 333-5131 Courtney Tamimie Program Manager [email protected] (217) 333-7425 Website: www.soybeaninnovation lab.illinois.edu Twitter: @tropicalsoylab Two Success Stories, One Mission Environmental Impact of Growing Soy in the Tropics A transition to soy-based agriculture, and to best practices for soybean growing and production, will undoubtedly alter the local, regional, and global environmental impacts in the tropics. In order to evaluate the environmental sustainability of the transition to soybean production, SIL researchers are assessing the local, regional, and global environmental impacts through local environmental monitoring, life-cycle assessment (LCA) and computational modeling. SIL’s environmental sustainability component is being led by Dr. Jeremy Guest and PhD student Kia Alexander at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. SIL research seeks to understand the local, regional and global environmental implications of transitioning to soy in Sub-Saharan Africa, and to use that understanding to inform policies and agricultural decision-making. The environmental sustainability team are traveling to Ghana this month to begin environmental sampling at the Soybean Innovation Lab’s SMART (Soybean Management with Appropriate Research and Technology) Farm in Tamale, Ghana in partnership with researchers at Mississippi State University and the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI). SIL researchers are looking at issues related to soil and water quality, erosion, land use change, agricultural input use (inoculum, pesticides, fertilizers), and other related factors to measure the impact of soy production. They are also evaluating how agricultural mechanization, transportation of inputs and output and chemical and energy usage is changing as a result of new farming methods, and what unintended consequences might result. SIL’s environmental stewardship research supports the mission of the laboratory in providing critical information needed for successful soybean development in the tropics. Soybean Innovation Lab Newsletter Above: These photos depict part of the SIL low- latitude varietal adaptation evaluation. SIL researchers are assessing characteristics in the plants related to pod density, node number and plant height. Below: University of Missouri PhD student Carrie Miranda and Francisco Tacsan of Costa Rica Seeds discuss how local farmers prefer certain plant types for field management and harvesting in common bean production. Photo credit: Dr. Kristin Bilyeu Low-processing soybean development for household use There is an opportunity to increase the consumption of soybean at the household level. Soybean is a complex food to move from bean to recipe, as household processing and utilization have been two significant barriers to adoption. Since soybean is a non-native food stuff, Soybean Innovation lab (SIL) researchers are focusing on how training in the proper handling, processing, and utilization of soybean within local recipes in the household affects the sustainability of human soybean consumption. A component of this research also includes the development of a low- processing soybean variety that does not require traditional heating methods as current varieties require processing prior to utilization to remove anti- nutritional factors. The low-processing soybean variety will be tested to determine if difficulty of processing is a bottleneck for sustained household soy consumption. The study of these two key research areas will be conducted in three target villages in Mozambique. SIL human nutrition research lead Dr. Marilyn Nash with the University of Illinois is collaborating with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) on the assessment. Dr. Kristin Bilyeu with the University of Missouri and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA- ARS) is leading the efforts on the low- processing soybean development. To develop the variety, researchers have identified methods for removing trypsin inhibitors and lectin (KTI and Le), the two factors that require heat processing for utilization. The low KTI and Le null traits are being selected and developed from naturally occurring mutations and combined with conventional breeding. Dr. Bilyeu and PhD student Carrie Miranda are in Costa Rica this month evaluating experiments underway to develop the low- processing soybean. Dr. Bilyeu is leveraging existing partnerships in Costa Rica to evaluate the varietal development in an environment with a very close longitude to SIL’s research efforts in northern Ghana.