Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)

Description:

Phaseolus bean, or common bean, is the world’s most important food legume. Farmers grow common beans in two forms, as dry beans and snap beans (the green pods are consumed as a vegetable). Latin America produces nearly half of the world’s supply of dry beans. Brazil, Mexico, and Central America are the major producers in this continent. Africa is considered to be a secondary center for bean genetic diversity. In Africa, women on small farms are the primary bean growers. Farmers plant about 3 million hectares of beans annually in eastern, central and southern Africa, usually as a mixture of varieties.

Beans are an attractive crop for farmers, because of its adaptability to different cropping systems and short growing cycle. The disadvantage, however, to the bean plant is its susceptibility to many diseases and climatic stresses. Some diseases affecting bean production are angular leaf spot, rust, common bacterial blight, bean stem maggot, bean common mosaic virus and bean golden mosaic virus. Moreover, about 60 percent of bean production in developing countries suffers from low soil phosphorus availability.

Statistics:

World production of dry beans for 2005 was 18 million metric tons. The area harvested to dry beans was over 25 million hectares. Green bean production for the same period was over 6 million metric tons and the area harvested was 890,914 hectares.

The global bean harvest of 18 million tons annually has an estimated value of US $11 billion.
Latin America is the most important bean producing region, its 8 million hectares accounting for nearly half of global output.

Nutritional Information:

Beans are nutritionally rich, especially in protein and iron, along with being a good source of dietary fiber and complex carbohydrates. Given their nutritional quality and high consumption levels, beans make an important contribution to human nutrition, especially for poor consumers. In addition to high quality protein, a single serving (1 cup) of beans provides at least half the USDA-recommended daily allowance of folic acid (a B vitamin that is especially important for pregnant women) and 25-30 percent of the daily recommended iron levels. Similarly, the same serving of beans provides 25 percent of the daily requirements of magnesium and copper, and 15 percent of potassium and zinc.

CGIAR Centers’ Work on Beans:

CGIAR’s Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) holds the global mandate for bean research. CIAT conducts international research on beans in Latin America and Africa, including Sub-Saharan Africa.

In partnership with national agricultural research systems and regional networks, CIAT works on ways to increase bean productivity in several regions through improved cultigens and management practices. In addition, CIAT maintains the largest global collection of bean germplasm and related species.

In recent years, CIAT has begun to seek non-genetic solutions to difficult production problems, in addition to the development of improved varieties. Pilot integrated pest management studies in the Andean region of South America have been successful in reducing pesticide applications by more than 50 percent in targeted regions.

Sources:

CIAT web site

FAOSTAT. PRODSTAT.

Technical Advisory Committee: CGIAR Priorities and Strategies for Resource Allocation during 1998-2000.
April 1997.

CGIAR. 25 Years of Food and Agriculture Improvement in Developing Countries.