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The Great Bean Race: An annual evaluation of the up and coming lines in AAFC-breeding program. Assessments focus on marketing ability, yield, disease resistance and days to maturity. GROW GENETICS 7 | Pulse Research Report Diseases such as white mould are holding back dry bean production in Alberta. High-yielding, disease-resistant beans are the focus of a new APG funding commitment. PROJECT TITLE Development of high-yielding dry bean cultivars with disease resistance and seed quality PROJECT LEAD Parthiba Balasubramanian, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada TOTAL VALUE OF PROJECT $525,000 FUNDING PARTNERS Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Viterra: Bean Division On one level, dry beans look like an attractive crop for southern Alberta. With at least 10 market classes within the category, dry beans have a variety of market uses. As a pulse crop, they enrich the soil. With surging global demand for plant protein, and greater domestic consumer awareness and processor interest, the market looks receptive. Talk to growers who could but aren't growing dry beans, and many will point to white mould as the reason why. "Irrigation plus nitrogen equals white mould," said Parthiba Balasubramanian, Lethbridge-based Dry Bean Breeder with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. "We don't have complete genetic resistance to white mould, but we have lines with partial resistance." Even with a better white mould defense, cracking an irrigated southern Alberta crop rotation isn't easy. Growers have a variety of high-value cropping options available, many with lower agronomic risk than some growers associate with beans. These days, soybeans are also looking for a foothold. In this environment, Balasubramanian estimates that dry bean yields of at least 3,000 pounds per acre are needed to be competitive with other crops. He's been breeding dry bean varieties for 20 years and several currently available varieties – including three each of pinto and Great Northern, and two each of yellow and black beans– are the product of his efforts. In 2017, Alberta Pulse Growers committed new funding to allow Balasubramanian to continue his work, with a goal of developing new, higher-yielding and more disease-resistant dry bean varieties. PROGRESS ON DISEASE; MORE NEEDED Greater disease resistance has long been a key target for Balasubramanian's breeding program. White mould, bacterial (or common) blight and halo blight are the focus diseases. "We have made improvements in all classes regarding bacterial blight," he said. "We've also released the first black bean with resistance to common blight, and we're working on pinto, red, yellow and Great Northern." With new five-year funding from APG, Viterra and Alberta Innovates, Balasubramanian will continue his long-standing strategy of crossing lines with some or significant disease resistance with high-yielding cultivars that are also early-maturing. "We've had more than our share of hailstorms in the last few years," he said. "Hail damage can allow bacteria to get in the plant, so we are trying to incorporate bacterial blight resistance." In addition to high yields, early maturity and disease resistance, Balasubramanian is also aiming to improve seed quality, which spans many attributes. This includes seed size and weight, and canning and cooking qualities such as seed coat colour and integrity. After 20 years of working with the crop, and new funding from Alberta Pulse Growers, Viterra and Alberta Innovates, Balasubramanian sees continued progress ahead. "We need to keep moving forward on diseases like white mould and bacterial blight," he said. "The cost of producing dry bean under irrigation is also high, so you need to keep that yield up too." Making Beans More Competitive

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