Location: Tropical Crops and Germplasm Research
Project Number: 6090-21000-059-015-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2022
End Date: Jun 30, 2023
Objective:
The goal of this project is to improve common bean production in the dry corridor and the humid lowlands of Honduras and Guatemala where crops are exposed to extreme climatic conditions, including high temperature and drought, and multiple disease constraints. Specifically the project will be releasing a black common bean cultivar for Guatemala, and other black bean producing countries, and a small red common bean cultivar for Honduras and other red bean producing countries of the region. USDA-ARS-TARS has a long history of working to improve these two market classes of common bean for the U.S. farmer, while these efforts also benefit the farmers of the Caribbean and Central America.
Approach:
The goal of improving common bean production in Honduras, Guatemala, and in other countries of Central America, will be achieved through the release of climate-resilient and disease resistant common bean cultivars suitable for production in lowland areas of the region that suffer from extreme climatic conditions. Superior abiotic stress tolerance common bean breeding lines will be selected for release as cultivars through an ongoing, successful, and collaborative bean improvement project involving National Agricultural Research Programs (NARs), Universities, and Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs). Regional nurseries will be established for testing a larger group of advanced breeding lines and marker assisted selection for disease resistance genes will be implemented on a broad scale in the collaborative breeding programs for the first time.
