With soybeans starting to take acres away from common beans, this scientist has been working to improve beans’ resilience in the face of cold and drought.
If you’re an Alberta farmer who’s been kicking the tires on soybeans, Kirstin Bett urges you to consider all the evidence before you jump in. A Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at the University of Saskatchewan, she believes that dry (or common) beans are a better choice on many levels.
“My take on soybeans is that you’re not going to make a lot of money on soybeans because it costs a lot to grow them,” Bett said. “It is high-risk and not well adapted here. Common beans are better adapted to areas like Saskatchewan and the higher latitude parts of Alberta. In some areas where you can’t grow soybeans, you can grow beans. We also have germplasm of bean that can grow farther north than soy.”
That’s not to say that growing dry beans is a walk in the park. As Bett explains, beans can be badly damaged by frosts and need more moisture than is sometimes available.
Since 2002, Bett has been working to make dry beans more tolerant of stresses caused by frost and drought. Between 2013 and 2015, this work was partially supported by Alberta Pulse Growers.
Genetics from tepary bean
Bett identified tepary bean – widely grown in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico – as a potential source of drought- and cold-tolerant genetics.
“Tepary beans actually prefer dry conditions to being well-watered,” Bett said. “Over the past 15 years, we have made interspecies hybrids bringing in these tolerances.”
In 2015, Ph.D. student Jodi Souter conducted plot trails in Puerto Rico involving tepary beans, varieties of common bean grown on the Prairies and Bett’s common lines with added tepary traits. The crosses weren’t as drought-tolerant as the teparies but some performed better under dry conditions than the regular common bean.
Bett continues to work on cold tolerance of common bean, seeking to develop lines that germinate well in colder soils in the spring and better resist frost in the spring or fall. This could allow growers to plant their common beans earlier, extending the growing season and adding yield in the process.
Common bean varieties that hold up better against stressful conditions should also help growers deal with a changing climate.
“I would argue that we will have a lot more climate variability, not only drought,” Bett said. “The more stress-resilient your crop is, the better off it’ll be.”
Is there a soybean crop in your future? Maybe so, but by working to develop lines that are more drought- and cold-tolerant, Bett is strengthening the case for growing common bean.
“I ask, why would we try to compete with the U.S. on soybeans?” she said. “Why not grow a high-value bean when we can?”
Project at a glance
Project title: Deployment of Tepary Bean Genetics to improve stress tolerance in Common Bean
Project lead: Kirstin Bett, University of Saskatchewan
Total value of project: $20,000
Start date: 2013
Completion date: 2015