Common, but not forgotten

The common bean can hardly be said to be making a comeback but it is making a new impact, both on food security and as big business for small farmers. So why is a bean, that has been cultivated for 7,000 years or more, exciting farmers in Latin America and Africa?

Common bean, (Phaseolus vulgaris) is unkindly named. It has an astonishing diversity of colour, shape, size, texture and taste, and it is remarkably adaptable. It can be grown at sea level, or at altitudes of over 3000 metres, and it can provide a nutritious harvest from soil that is low in nutrients. Where common beans are valued for their uncommon qualities, a daughter may be given a small stock of seed as she leaves the family home to marry. This is a wedding gift that will last longer than most and provide protein, carbohydrates and essential minerals as well as the B vitamin, folic acid, that is especially important for pregnant women. In good times, or in hard times and hungry seasons, the common bean is the centrepiece of the daily diet for more than 300 million people. It is the world's most important food legume.

The challenge for agricultural scientists is to develop varieties and cropping systems that meet the needs of a growing and increasingly urban-based population. CIAT reports that total bean production in Latin America has risen by 25% over the last decade or so but that the total area planted to beans has risen by only 2%, reflecting the higher yields obtained from improved varieties. This is good news because land and labour shortage in most bean producing areas limits the opportunities for increasing production by expanding the area planted.

The same constraints apply in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the heavily populated, bean growing regions of eastern Africa, the Lakes, and the highlands of southern Africa. Bean yields have not shown such good improvement as in Latin America but, although the total area under production has declined, there are regions where beans are doing very well. In Rwanda, where the pressure on land is intense, climbing beans of Mexican origin, introduced by the national bean programme (with CIAT support), have proved to be much better in terms of yield and root rot resistance than bush beans or local climbing varieties. After the civil war disrupted the country's agricultural base, it seems that seed of the improved climbing beans were the preferred choice for many returning farming families.

In Latin America where beans, as in Africa, are grown principally by small farmers for their own use and for local sale, better beans means bigger business. In Bolivia's Eastern Plains, where bean production was not previously part of the local agricultural tradition, the crop was introduced to fill a gap between the end of the rice harvest and the planting season for maize. This is a three month period of winter when the weather is cold and often dry. CIAT reports that bean production has been so successful that small farmers who formed a bean production cooperative have added an export arm to their organization which now earns $3 million annually from bean exports to Brazil, Colombia and Japan.

Similar stories of better business from beans are reported from many Latin and Central American regions. Farmers are finding a good market among those families that have migrated to the burgeoning cities in search of employment. Beans are poor man's meat in both city and village and there is enough variety in the common bean to suit all tastes - and to provide the genetic diversity on which future, improved bean varieties will depend.

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