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Tepary Beans Thrive in Drought Conditions
Mother Nature created a bean that is well adapted to hot dry climates which may be very important for agriculture in the future, says Robin Buell, who did genetic research on tepary beans at Michigan State University. As the previous Director of the Plant Resilience Institute at Michigan State University, she is one of
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Tepary Beans Thrive in Drought Conditions CROPS Miscellaneous Mother Nature created a bean that is well adapted to hot dry climates which may be very important for agriculture in the future says Robin Buell who did genetic research on tepary beans at Michigan State University As the previous Director of the Plant Resilience Institute at Michigan State University she is one of many people working with the tepary bean to add its traits to its bean cousins for future commercial crops “The tepary bean originated in the Sonoran desert in the Southwest and was domesticated by ancient Indians ” Buell says With traits that allow it to grow well in heat and drought it has the potential to have good yields without irrigation Genetic and field work is being done to cross the tepary bean with varieties that have 100 years of breeding Pinto black and navy beans are similar in size and have necessary traits for production They have disease resistance in wetter climates and the plants are easily harvested “The tepary bean grows on a wild vine so we need to change the architecture to make them upright and able to be harvested with a combine ” Buell says “We are still in the early stages of understanding what genes facilitate interspecific crossing and how to improve breeding efficiency We have tested some of these interspecific lines under high-temperature stress and will test them under drought stress in Juana Daz this winter ” says Timothy Porch plant research geneticist at the Agricultural Research Service Tropical Crops and Germplasm Research Station who has been breeding tepary beans since 2007 “The field trials are conducted mostly in Isabela and Juana Daz Puerto Rico and the crosses and some disease evaluations are conducted in screenhouses in Mayagüez Puerto Rico ” Other experiments are being done in warm climate countries as well as in Colo Neb Arizona and Calif Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Robin Buell Robin Buell@uga edu; Timothy Porch timothy porch@usda gov
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