New “Alert” bean variety boasts higher yield, white mold resistance

“Alert,” a new dry bean variety for Western Canada’s booming bean acreage, signals research gains in yield potential, upright growth and white mold resistance. The variety was co-developed by the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Lethbridge Research Centre and the AAFC Research Station at Morden, Man.

The great northern variety is licensed for on-farm testing, seed production and commercialization, with large-scale commercial availability expected in four years, says Dr. Hans-Henning Mündel, who co-developed the variety with Ferdinand Kiehn. Registration testing also demonstrated the bean is particularly well-suited to Manitoba conditions and features good overall resistance to common disease threats.

“Prairie bean acreage has expanded tremendously in recent years, despite a lack of Canadian-bred varieties tailored for our growing conditions,” says Mündel. “Alert is as example of the new varieties we’re developing to give our growers more and better options, to support this growing industry.”

Alert was named after Canada’s northernmost inhabited point, he says. The name is fitting not only because the variety is a great northern type, but because it signals higher levels of key characteristics. “Higher yield potential, improved upright growth habit and stronger disease resistance are key targets of the breeding effort, and all are featured in Alert.”

In pre-registration co-op testing, Alert averaged over 130 percent yield of the check, US 1140. It also showed moderate resistance to white mold – the region’s most costly bean disease threat.

“White mold is almost a given under the ‘right’ growing conditions,” says Mündel. “It is typical in moist areas, such as southern Manitoba, so any gain in resistance is important.”

In the case of Alert, white mold resistance is derived partly from the variety’s upright growth habit. This characteristic permits winds to dry down the canopy after rains or irrigation, thereby reducing the moist conditions that favour the development of white mold. Alert also features improved resistance to races 1 and 15 of Bean Common Mosaic Virus.

New varieties such as Alert will help give Canadian bean growers access to broader markets, says Mündel. The primary market for great northern beans is the Mediterranean.

The regional AAFC 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 AAFC’s Matching Investment Initiative.

Bean breeding at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre illustrates the government’s commitment to promote innovation for growth, maintain the security of the food system and protect the health of the environment, as proposed in the new Agricultural Policy Framework. The framework aims to increase profitability for producers by giving them the tools and capabilities to respond to constantly changing consumer demands for safe food produced in an environmentally responsible way.

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