The 2020 growing season is the fourth year of APG’s five-year Plot to Field initiative, which works with growers to conduct pulse research on their farms.

Have you ever seen something promising at a crop research strip trial, but wondered (or seriously doubted) if it would work on your farm? That’s the heart of a challenge that APG’s research team has been working to address.

“The benefit of small plots and strip trials is that they allow researchers to examine many different variables within a small footprint of land,” said APG Research Manager Dr. Jenn Walker. “The trouble is, small plot results don’t always translate into what a grower sees out in the field.”

One example is when a new variety performs exceptionally well on a small scale in company or co-op trials. If the observed yield translated to field scale, you’d be growing 100 bushels per acre of peas. That’s not happening. Clearly, there’s some kind of correction factor at work – one that’s frustrating for scientists and growers alike.

In 2015-16, APG wanted to boost its research capacity, partly in response to a shifting landscape of research funding and expertise in Alberta and Western Canada. Walker proposed what’s come to be known as Plot to Field, which works with interested pulse growers to conduct research on their farms at full commercial scale. The five-year funding envelope for Plot to Field runs through 2021.

Growers make it possible

What makes Plot to Field challenging is that long-standing crop research protocols have small-plot assumptions built in. To super-size the work and keep findings valid has been a formidable task for Walker and APG Research Officer Dr. Jagroop Gill Kahlon.

“We went on a hunt,” Walker said, “to see if there are protocols out there for field-scale research that included replication of plots, randomization of treatments and other pillars of sound science.”

In 2016, APG and a team of 10 cooperating Alberta pulse growers established the rules of the road for this field-scale research. The following year, those protocols were tested with a straightforward study of seeding rates. For 2018 and 2019, the focus widened with a look at a more complex issue: crop safety guidelines for seed-placed phosphorous.

“This is a question that growers ask us about all the time,” Walker said. “There was some small-plot work done many years ago, but with changes in technology and equipment, we wanted to look at it in a fresh way.”

She credits Plot to Field’s dedicated group of growers for making all this possible. The time they spend on extra equipment calibration and cleanout, on top of their other farm responsibilities, is appreciated by APG and will benefit fellow growers in a big way.

“From a scientist perspective, the program is allowing us to add to the body of available knowledge and publish our findings, but there are also some very practical outcomes that will have an immediate impact at the farm level,” Walker said. “That’s what makes Plot to Field so important and exciting.”

Partial Physiological Resistance is now a key criterion for dry bean breeding in Alberta, along with existing priorities such as yield potential and early maturity.

Dry bean varieties that feature lush canopies, grow close to the ground or lodge during the growing season make things easy for white mould. If conditions are also cool and wet, as this disease prefers, a significant infection becomes even more likely.

That’s why, with funding from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership AgriScience Program, Dr. Parthiba Balasubramanian is placing more emphasis on finding bean cultivars that grow in a way that makes it harder for white mould to grab on. This trait is known as Partial Physiological Resistance (PPR).

“This is a different aspect of resistance to white mould and one we’re focusing on more as part of the current Pulse Cluster funding,” said Balasubramanian, Lethbridge-based Dry Bean Breeder with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. “When pods are held slightly above the ground, hopefully not touching the soil surface, that helps avoid white mould and of course makes harvest easier too.”

When bean plants resist lodging, he explains, the plant creates a micro-climate that is not conducive for the pathogen. With healthy air movement through the canopy, the plant surface stays dry, making it less likely that white mould sclerotia will germinate to produce spores.

“We have started screening bean germplasm lines for Partial Physiological Resistance to white mould,” Balasubramanian said. “We have identified suitable lines and we’ve been using those lines as parents in our breeding program.”

A help, not a solution

Balasubramanian is quick to point out that Partial Physiological Resistance – noting the emphasis on partial – won’t solve growers’ white mould worries overnight. In years when conditions are borderline conducive, however, it certainly couldn’t hurt.

“A good example would be 2010,” Balasubramanian said. “The entire growing season was cool and wet, so the disease pressure was extremely high. And so avoidance, as a strategy, was simply not enough to keep the disease pressure low.”

He’s also taking on white mould from another direction. Some dry bean germplasm lines are able to regulate their pH level so they can tolerate infection. When spores land on the plant, it initiates infection. At that point, the pathogen releases oxalic acid but the plant neutralizes or pushes back on the infection.

That’s not to say that physiological (partial) resistance to white mould is Balasubramanian’s only breeding consideration. Yield potential and early maturity are just as important as ever.

In fact, Alberta’s 2019 harvest experience is a reminder that even though researchers can get their plots planted and harvested early, growers aren’t always so fortunate.

“Growers can only plant beans when they can get to it,” Balasubramanian said. “We go as soon as the land is ready, and that was May 10 in 2019, so we were able to get all our plots harvested before the rain and snow came. For us, it was more like a normal growing season. But it underlines just how important early maturity continues to be.”

How Alberta-specific germplasm screening helps keep yields rising, agronomic traits improving and our pulse growers globally competitive.

Each year a handful of new pulse varieties are registered and become commercially available in Alberta. These new varieties represent the very tip of the iceberg in terms of variety development. The rest of the iceberg – many times larger and normally hard to see – are the lines that didn’t make the cut.

For field pea, faba bean and – starting in 2019 – lentils, the screening process is led by Christy Hoy, Pulse Crops Agrologist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

It’s a big undertaking. In 2019, field pea, faba bean and lentil germplasm was evaluated in a total of 29 trials, encompassing 4,698 plots at six locations: Barrhead, Brooks, Lacombe, Lethbridge, Namao and Vegreville.

“The strength of the project is that it provides Alberta data from multiple locations, to ensure that lines going forward perform well under Alberta conditions,” Hoy said.

Many are evaluated, a few advance

To be approved for registration, each new pulse variety in Western Canada must survive a rigorous and highly selective screening process. It begins when Hoy receives germplasm from multiple breeding programs in Western Canada, the U.S and up to half a dozen countries in Europe. (Alberta returns the favour, by helping organizations navigate Plant Breeder’s Rights and the registration process in Canada.)

“Early germplasm screening trials are conducted, and those that perform well advance forward,” Hoy said. “From those locations, data is collected on agronomic traits.”

Selection criteria go far beyond yield, with careful attention paid to factors such as emergence, days to flower, height, lodging resistance, maturity and seed weight. New varieties need to yield well in addition to showing resilience in the face of a potentially tough growing season. The best performers at this stage move a little higher up the iceberg, but they’re still far from the surface.

“Data is sent back to the breeding programs and used to make breeding selections,” Hoy said. “The most promising lines eventually advance to the co-op trials that are used for registration, and the others drop out.”

The past year marked the entry of lentils into the project (Dr. Manjula Bandara being the principal investigator), with 24 early germplasm trials taking place at Vegreville and Brooks.

For growers wanting an inside look at the process, Hoy’s program holds crop walks or field days annually at each of the six locations.

“It’s a chance for us to talk about the project and show people what we’re doing,” Hoy said. “They like seeing the different germplasm from the different programs growing side by side.”

Currently two years into a five-year funding commitment from Alberta Pulse Growers and Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Hoy will keep hunting for the new varieties of tomorrow.

“It’s important to know how germplasm performs under Alberta’s different agro-ecological climates,” Hoy said. “We evaluated a large array of genetic material from multiple breeding programs in 2019, and it was an exciting year.”

The hunt is on for ways to improve pulse crops without waiting for traditional breeding and without crossing the transgenic threshold. Here’s one scientist’s vision.

You want to plant pea varieties that withstand drought better than current varieties? Given today’s climate uncertainties, these could be valuable tools to have.

As Ravinder Goyal explains, traditional plant breeding could have a role to play, but it also brings conditions.

“If you look at the germplasm, there are some cultivars that are better-performing than the others in terms of drought, “ said Goyal, Lacombe-based Research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. “The problem is, it’s a very long process – 12 or 13 years – to transfer a trait of interest through traditional breeding.”

What’s more, such cultivars would tend to outperform other cultivars only during the stress period. In other words, they’ll yield better than standard varieties if there’s a drought. If there’s no drought, they won’t.

Transgenic breeding tools could move the desired trait into new varieties far quicker than traditional breeding. The position of the pulse industry and growers, however, is that they do not want genetically modified crops. If traditional breeding takes too long (given today’s dynamic climate) and genetic modification is off the table (by industry consensus), does that mean a scientist like Goyal is out of options?

Not by a long shot. In the Spring of 2019, he began a three-year project that aims to improve water use efficiency in field pea in an entirely different way.

Modify the rhizomes, not the plant

Between traditional plant breeding on one hand, and genetic modification on the other, plant scientists have access to a range of new gene-editing tools. One such technology is CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats). These tools can be used as a kind of bridge between traditional and transgenic techniques. That’s Goyal’s idea for drought tolerance and field pea.

“I proposed, let’s not modify the crop; let’s modify the rhizomes that sit in the roots, in the nodules,” he said. “We can express what we want through the rhizomes – for example, increased drought tolerance – without adding foreign DNA to the crop.”

That’s a big idea for field peas alone. Now consider that the same approach could in concept work for other pulse crops and for soybeans. For the next three years, however, Goyal’s focus is field peas.

“Opening a line of communication between the rhizobium and the host is not easy,” he said. “It’s quite a challenging process, but there is so much value down the road if you succeed that it’s worth trying.”

Sometimes a constraint doesn’t end the process of discovery. It merely compels a creative thinker to seek another way. With neither traditional nor transgenic breeding strategies being appropriate, Goyal is finding a third way forward on drought tolerance of pulses.

“This past year was very wet, but we’ve seen dry conditions in recent years as well, it’s unpredictable,” he said. “This way we can have something in our hands if water is scarce.”

Two researchers are working together to ensure Alberta field peas meet the needs of growers, processors and consumers, with varieties that deliver from planting to plate.

Despite growing interest in lentils, faba beans and dry beans, pulses in Alberta have long been led by field peas. Some years, in fact, peas account for 75% or more of the revenue Alberta farmers earn from pulse crops.

With significant pulse processing capacity being added in Western Canada, researchers are developing high-yielding pea varieties that deliver more of what these processors want: protein.

In the spring of 2018, a group led by two veteran field pea researchers began a five-year collaborative project to develop high-yielding, high-protein varieties that process well and will appeal to consumers.

As pea breeder DJ Bing explains, a higher-protein pea variety can’t sacrifice yield, or growers will be reluctant to plant it. A high-yielding variety with lower protein could earn less revenue from protein-hungry processors. This being peas, the need for disease resistance and standability is also part of the discussion.

“Standability is one of our project’s top three priorities,” said Bing, Pulse Breeder with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. “Most producers would say that standability is crucial for the success of the pea industry.”

Over the next five years, with funding from the Canadian Pulse Research Science Cluster of the Canadian Agriculture Partnership, Bing will work on new field pea varieties that balance high yields and high protein.

“In the past 20 years, we’ve registered two varieties each year,” said Bing. “Can we achieve this same level for the coming years? I’m very dedicated to this and appreciate the support of the Canadian pulse industry.”

Future feedstock for pea processors

Making sure these high-yielding peas also process well and taste good is the other component of this project. It’s led by Jay Han, Senior Food Scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry’s Food Processing Development Centre.

“Over the last 20 years, the target was to increase yield, but pea protein content has gradually decreased as yields increased,” Han said. “We’ve been able to get protein content to an average of about 20% now. Our next target is to move the protein into the high 20s sought after by processors.”

With the protein content target within striking distance, Han is setting his sights on easing field pea’s signature strong flavour and improving its functional food characteristics to give processors more of what they want.

It’s clear that yield is no longer the sole yardstick by which new field pea varieties will be measured. With expanding processing capacity in Alberta and pulse processors looking for functionality that will ultimately please the consumer’s palate, the future belongs to high-yielding, high-protein varieties that process well. As Han sees it, it’s an exciting time to be in peas.

“We’re working with processors building in Alberta who will be doing fractionation and extraction,” Han said. “We want to show that our capacity and expertise can support our Alberta growers and the processors, too.”

This newly funded program gathers pulse germplasm from many sources, and intensively screens it to find material that could one day become new varieties suited to Alberta.

Buyers around the world are demanding greater volumes of pulse crops. Here in Western Canada, significant new pulse processing capacity is coming on stream. To meet this growing demand, prairie pulse growers need to increase production.

There’s a clear track record that indicates we can do it. Over the past 10 years, average pulse yields have been on a strong upward arc.

In Alberta, part of the credit for this progress rests with a long-running, highly successful program that screens pea and faba bean germplasm for suitability under Alberta growing conditions.

With a new five-year funding commitment from Alberta Pulse Growers and Alberta Agriculture and Forestry (AF) recently announced, growers and industry can be confident that this program will continue to deliver.

“Varietal development is something that is very important for Alberta pulse growers,” said Christy Hoy, Pulse Crops Agrologist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. “Breeders are continually developing improved germplasm that has higher yields, enhanced quality, new market traits and disease resistance. This activity contributes directly to increased pulse yields, which is always a good thing.”

Six locations determine Alberta suitability

Under this project, Hoy and her team will continue to screen hundreds of pea and faba bean germplasm lines each year. These are gathered from breeding programs in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, including the Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, Finland, Germany and, soon, Israel. Field work takes place at six locations in Alberta that reflect the different agro-climatic zones in which pulses can be grown: Barrhead, Lethbridge, Vegreville, Lacombe, Brooks and Namao.

Hoy explained that the program is looking at a variety of criteria in field peas and faba beans, including: emergence or percent stand, days to flower, plant height, lodging resistance, physiological maturity, seed weight and yield.

From there, data is sent back to the breeders so they can select the most promising lines. This framework has been successful in recent years, as breeders have kept a steady flow of new varieties coming to growers. Additionally, the next five-year period will see Hoy’s program add lentils and lupins to its portfolio. Lentils are becoming more common in Alberta crop rotations, and she believes lupins are another crop to watch.

“Lupins are very high in protein and the demand for plant protein is on the rise,” Hoy said. “Lupins also have tremendous potential in fractionation for human consumption, pet foods and cosmetics.”

The past decade has seen significant improvement in the yield potential of pulse varieties grown in Alberta. In fact, previous generations of varieties from AF’s germplasm program are now the check varieties against which new contenders are measured. For pulse growers, processors and shippers, the program is one of the industry’s biggest competitive advantages.

Can Hoy, her research team and the world’s pulse crop breeders keep up their accustomed pace of innovation? Stay tuned.

“I’m really excited about the project and the number of entries and locations,” Hoy said. “It’s as big as it has ever been, and I think we’re going to generate some really great data. We’re very grateful for this funding.”

New dry bean varieties must combine field performance with canning and cooking quality. Newly announced funding will help bring the best lines to growers.

When a consumer opens a can of Canadian beans, whether they realize it or not, they’re gazing at a thing of beauty. Every bean in the can needs to be comparably sized, evenly coloured and pleasingly shaped, with nary a broken bean in sight.

This simple but essential quality experience is only possible because of the hard work of bean breeders across Canada. In one aspect of their work – see the story on page __ – breeders like Alberta’s Parthiba Balasubramanian develop varieties in different classes of dry beans that perform well in the field.

That’s not all. In addition, no new Canadian bean variety is registered without painstaking research into its canning and cooking qualities. With Canada being the fourth largest exporter of dry beans worldwide, and more than 98% of dry bean production consumed as food, there’s a lot resting on getting it right.

In 2018, a five-year funding commitment from the Canadian Pulse Science Research Cluster was announced, ensuring Balasubramanian’s long-standing work will continue. His task? Ensure Canadian dry beans meet exacting processor and consumer expectations.

Quality in, quality out

“A seed that’s nice going into the can usually comes out nice after canning as well,” said Balasubramanian, Dry Bean Breeder with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Lethbridge. “In the early part of the breeding program, the focus is primarily on the seed quality: size, shape, colour and seed coat.”

As Balasubramanian explains, lines failing to meet these quality demands are discarded early in the process. Only advanced lines of cultivars that have been through six years or more of development and breeding will face the final hurdle.

Harvesting 200-gram bean samples for each cultivar, Balasubramanian and his team work cooperatively with the Ontario Pulse Crop Committee on a project to cook, can and evaluate lines being considered for registration.

“For example, hard seeds don’t absorb water easily but they will absorb water during the canning process,” Balasubramanian said. “When they absorb water inside the can, they cause plumping that might break the seed during processing.”

Of dry bean cultivars that enter the canning and cooking evaluation program, only a select few will have what it takes to move on to registration trials. Those cultivars are high-yielding, disease resistant – and, in the case of Alberta – early maturing, along with the consistent quality that food processors and consumers demand. Many are tested, but few are chosen.

So, when an Alberta grower puts a new dry bean variety in the ground, they can be sure it’s going to be agronomically sound and produce high-quality food.

“I work with a great team here,” Balasubramanian said. “We have good germplasm and good funding. We want to make sure that any improvement we make is directed back to the growers. I am confident we will do that.”

New funding helps ensure that Alberta bean growers will continue to see a steady stream of early-maturing, high-yielding and disease-resistant new varieties with superior seed quality.

For a crop with a relatively small acreage, grown in a specific geographic range, dry bean in Alberta punches far above its weight in terms of dollars and cents.

The province’s 50,000 irrigated acres of dry beans produce a crop worth $35 million annually. Without yield losses caused by the key diseases white mould and bacterial blight, that figure could be considerably higher.

That’s why Parthiba Balasubramanian’s work over the past 15 years with dry beans has been so important. He’s developed many varieties specifically suited to Alberta’s growing conditions that mature earlier, have improved disease resistance and yield higher.

“Breeding is a long-term thing,” said Balasubramanian, Dry Bean Breeder with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Lethbridge. “Bringing traits like disease resistance into early- maturing lines is step one. Once we have it in lines that are adapted to southern Alberta, we then cross them with the cultivars that have proven themselves. Those crosses generally result in the most productive cultivars.”

Balasubramanian’s long-standing breeding efforts could also be deemed productive. In 2017, 99% of acres grown in Alberta used varieties that came out of the Lethbridge program.

Research assured for five more years

Dry bean growers in Alberta received good news this summer with the announcement of new funding from the Canadian Pulse Science Research Cluster which will allow Balasubramanian to continue his work until 2023.

A new target of Balasubramanian’s research is to look beyond plant standability to avoid white mould disease. He’s looking to add partial physiological resistance within the plant.

Balasubramanian points to one recently registered variety to illustrate the kind of improvement this approach can bring about. Othello, a bean variety that was grown in 2007, can result in white mould in up to 75% of the plants, due to a weak stem and poor standability. Balasubramanian’s cultivar, the 2016-registered AAC Explorer, drastically reduces white mould incidences to around 25%, due to its lodging resistance. That’s targeted breeding in action.

“We’ve seen this work time and again in this program,” Balasubramanian said. “For example, common bacterial blight resistance was only available in late-maturing lines developed for Ontario. Throughout the years, we crossed the Ontario lines with those better for Alberta, and now we have many lines in our program with bacterial blight resistance.”

As Alberta’s dry bean growers look for higher-yielding, more disease-resistant and earlier-maturing varieties in the future, new funding will allow Balasubramanian and his team to explore different ways to meet those needs.

“Growers take major risks with frost, and if cultivars are not high-yielding, bean production may not be profitable for them,” Balasubramanian said. “This dry bean breeding program has been able to develop cultivars that combine early maturity with high yield. Add in unique traits, and you make bean production even more profitable.”