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New bean varieties to fuel expanding Prairie acreage

Date posted: April 8, 2002

The rapidly-expanding Prairie bean industry will soon benefit from new varieties tailor-made for western Canadian farmers and global markets.

A team of researchers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre and Morden, Man., research station have spent much of the past decade developing new bean varieties for the Canadian prairies. Their effort is young by long-term crop breeding standards, but it builds on the pioneering work of other researchers and has already produced several new bean varieties set to emerge over the next several years.

“Bean acreage is booming with lots of new growers prairie-wide, but for much of this growth our producers have had to rely on American varieties and others that aren’t optimally adapted to our short growing seasons,” explains bean breeder Dr. Hans-Henning Mundel of the Lethbridge Research Centre. “Our new dry bean varieties will fill that need and support the continued success of our industry.”

The modern research program is built on the early work of several scientists, says Mundel. Bean breeders Dr. Gavin Kemp and Dr. Gilles Saindon, as well as pathologist Dr. Henry Huang – who remains with the program – all played key roles.

As the research effort has grown, so has Prairie bean production, he says. Diversification has become a mantra of today’s agriculture – expand the range of crops to take advantage of a growing number of niche markets around the globe – and bean production is a leading example of how Prairie farmers have responded.

The numbers tell the story. Canadian bean production has shot up dramatically over the past decade – harvested production is up 2.5 times, largely due to booming acreage in Manitoba and other pockets of the Prairies. And Canada has vaulted to become one of the top five world exporters of dry beans, with large shipments to the United Kingdom, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.

But while the reach of Canada’s growing bean industry is global, its success is firmly rooted at home – based on growers’ capacity to deliver an abundant, top-quality harvest, he says. This is where research plays a major role.

“Our regional breeding program targets a range of production systems, but our current focus is on early-maturing cultivars – including pinto, great northern, small red, black and pink dry beans – with a more upright growth habit that limits white mold and allows for the option of direct harvest from narrow-row plantings,” says Mundel. The Morden program also has a strong focus on navy beans, which comprise 50 percent of Manitoba bean acreage.

One product of the research effort is AC Redbond, a small red bean variety that features an upright growth habit and early maturity, and performs particularly well in both wide and narrow rows, making it a viable option for cereal and oilseed growers. Another new variety also suited to both wide and narrow row production is AC Polaris, a great northern bean variety.

Several emerging varieties from the Morden-Lethbridge cooperative program are particularly well suited for Manitoba production. One is AC Scarlet, a red bean with greatly improved yield, a more upright growth habit and earlier maturity. Another is Alert, a great northern variety now emerging from the pipeline, which features a more upright growth habit and increased yield potential, together with an adaptation well suited for the climate in southern Manitoba.

“These varieties not only boost performance for existing growers, they make bean production more attractive to an increasing number of producers – that promotes diversification, which is an important underlying goal of our program,” says Mundel. “Our new work will take this effort a step further by improving upright dry bean varieties for a number of market classes.”

The regional Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada bean breeding effort has been supported in part by Agricore United, the Alberta Pulse Growers Commission, the Manitoba Pulse Growers Association, the Alberta Agricultural Research Institute and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Matching Investment Initiative. It is complimented by the bean development program at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre, which targets narrow-row dryland production.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre has a mandate to promote innovation for growth, maintain security of the food system and protect the health of the environment. This research supports the Government of Canada’s proposed aims in the new Agriculture Policy Framework.