Photo credits: Scientific American
30 heat-tolerant legumes with the potential to survive and grow as temperatures rise.
Image credit: Ervins Strauhmanis/Flickr
30 heat-tolerant legumes identified to help fight global warming
New heat-resistant pulse varieties could help ensure food security and expand into new regions
Black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, navy beans and pink beans (common beans) provide essential protein and vitamins throughout the world, especially in Latin America and Africa. But according to a recent study
Climate modelsRising temperatures could render up to 50 percent of bean-growing areas unable to grow them by 2050, making them an even bigger threat to this staple than drought or disease. So the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) dug into its seed bank and struck gold. After testing more than 1,000 bean varieties they’d developed in other projects, researchers found about 30 that showed the ability to produce seeds despite warmer nighttime temperatures. These beans have the potential to not only survive warmer temperatures, but thrive. In fact, they could even expand the area where beans can be grown.
—————-
Although the task sounds complex, Beebe has high hopes. It’s encouraging, he says, that many of the bean plants his team tested acquired heat tolerance without help from researchers. That’s a good sign that the same traits can be passed on to new plants; this set of traits may be genetically complex, but they’ve been successfully passed on to plants that were selected for other traits.
Read the full article: Scientific American
author: William Van Cottum
Professor Emeritus of Botany, Ghent University (Belgium). Scientific advisor on desertification and sustainable development.
View all posts by Willem Van Cotthem
