Lowland Pulse

Lowland Pulse Research Program

Tags

Pulses are important sources of food for smallholder farmers and export commodity for Ethiopia. The program undertakes research on common bean, mung bean, cowpea, and pigeon pea. Thirty-five common bean varieties of different market classes, that are high-yielding and disease resistance, six cowpeas, two mung beans, one pigeon pea, and one adzuki bean varieties were released for production.

In addition, the research program is multiplying and supplying breeder seed for wider multiplication by seed companies and farmers’ cooperatives and unions. The supply of the breeder seed has stimulated the production and supply of successive seeds and this has substantially increased Lowland pulses largely common bean production and productivity. Seed production and supply of mung bean is growing and needs improvement. Several research findings and guidelines were published in reputable journals.

Learn More

Breeding Approach and Strategies

Tags Six common bean product concepts (PC) (market class) main target of the breeding program

The three important factors to be considered to bring progress through breeding are the magnitude of genetic variability among genetic materials, heritability of a given trait in a given environment and the level of selection intensity applied (Falconer, 1989). In the National Lowland Pulses Breeding Program, genetic variability has been created through introduction of germplasm, collection of local landraces and crossing of selected parents. The introduction of breeding materials is mainly from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) /Pan African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) for common beans, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for cowpea, Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC) for mung bean and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) for pigeon pea. Introductions from these international research institutes have been the main sources of germplasm for the program and recently, local crosses for common bean are becoming potential source of germplasm for the program. The target of crossings in common bean is improving disease and insect pest resistance, transferring seed quality traits (preferred color and shape) and adaptability to moisture stress. Creating genetic variability through crossing followed selfing up to F6 generation to increase homozygosity and then selected populations or lines advanced to further breeding stage and then multi-location evaluation.

In the past, common bean breeding program designed mainly based on bean market class (seed color and seed size). Recently, to make the varietal development program effective, the breeding program clearly defined the farmers’ and consumers’ preferences, traits of interest, and the environments and the farming system for which the breeding is undertaken. Thus, the program identified six product concepts (PCs) for common beans based on market demand (export and local consumption), partners’ requirement, and production statistics so as to get well defined and focused common bean breeding program. The PCs are large white bean (PC1), large red bean (PC2), small white bean (PC3), small red bean (PC4), large speckled (PC5) and large red mottled bean (PC6) (Figure 1). In addition, the breeding program pipeline development is designed for continuous population development by clustering the six PCs in small and large categories.

Learn More