Australia
November 2, 2012
Source: GRDC Ground Cover
By Alexandra Roginski
Major developments in the faba bean breeding program will help to secure Australia’s reputation for pulses of consistently high quality for the Middle Eastern market
The recent release of Pulse Breeding Australia’s (PBA) new faba bean variety for the northern New South Wales and southern Queensland regions is just one of several major new developments in the PBA faba bean breeding program.
PBA Warda offers good rust resistance, equivalent to that of popular variety Doza and greater than that of Cairo. Rust in the northern faba bean growing region can reduce yields by 20 to 30 per cent and decrease seed size. PBA Warda also yields more than Doza and has a larger seed size.
When harvested, it will contribute to the roughly 200,000-plus tonnes of faba beans exported each year from Australia to the Middle East, particularly to Egypt, where they are a staple food.
The nationally coordinated PBA faba bean breeding program, based at the University of Adelaide, is further strengthened by a northern node at the University of Sydney in Narrabri, NSW. The University of Sydney has recently become a member of PBA.
Kate Light, project manager of breeding programs, GRDC, says that the nationally managed faba bean program is finding comprehensive solutions to plant disease.
“In the past, pulses have been considered a yield and production risk, but through the work of all our breeders, including our faba bean breeders, we’re now getting varieties that are much more stable in their yield and have consistently higher levels of disease resistance,” Ms Light says.
Dr Jeffrey Paull, leader of the PBA faba bean breeding program based at the University of Adelaide, says the seed size of PBA Warda, which is slightly larger than Doza, helps position it for the Egyptian market, which prizes the visual qualities of size, shape and colour.
The GRDC has recently contributed additional funding to the research program, allowing for further work on disease resistance and drought tolerance in developing varieties.
“We’re increasing our selections at lower-rainfall sites in the early generations, to try and improve the overall production in low-rainfall areas and to provide greater yield stability during dry seasons in the higher-rainfall areas,” Dr Paull says.
Meanwhile, further GRDC-supported research on herbicide tolerance is making important breakthroughs, with the potential to release grower-ready cultivars in 10 years.
Pulse Australia’s Wayne Hawthorne says disease is the biggest production risk for faba beans. Chocolate spot, cercospora leaf spot and rust are the major challenges for the southern growing region, with ascochyta blight a lesser pressure due to the availability of disease-resistant varieties. Rust and bean leaf roll virus are challenges in the northern region.
“Those people who are growing faba beans, in areas that are suited to faba beans, are finding it is actually one of their better crops, and their gross margins can be greater than their cereal crops,” Mr Hawthorne says.
Of new varieties, he says that PBA Rana, which was released for the southern growing region last year and is known for its larger seed size, is keenly anticipated by Australian marketers and overseas importers.
“We are producing what the market wants in faba bean breeding, and a classic example is PBA Rana. Marketers have seen it all the way along in development, and it’s a product they want to get hold of. It is a specialised product, because it’s larger than the standard faba bean.”
The popularity of Australian faba beans in the Middle East means that most new Australian faba bean varieties are given names that reflect the bean’s origins in the so-called Fertile Crescent, a region that spans parts of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and Iran. PBA Rana, which has a large seed, takes its name from a word meaning ‘attractive or eye-catching’ in Arabic.
Species
