Climate-ready faba beans for the Nordic and Baltic Region

Increased cultivation of legumes in Europe has several agronomic and environmental benefits. One of these is that legumes have an effective nitrogen uptake capacity and therefore require less fertilizer.

Another advantage is that with increased domestic plant protein production, we can reduce our dependence on imports of soybean.

Faba bean is a legume that is interesting for our Nordic latitudes because it can withstand a relatively cold climate, and it has a high yield potential.

However, there are several challenges with the crop that currently limit its distribution in the Nordic countries that we will work with in this research project.

One of the challenges is the relatively long growing period of the crop, and it is desirable to develop varieties that go into flowering early and take advantage of the short growing season with long days. Another challenge are diseases such as chocolate spot disease, and a third is the drought sensitivity.

Through experiments in the field and in controlled climate chambers, we will, in combination with genomic tools, identify plant material with improved adaptation and yield potential as well as candidate genes that regulate these traits.

Furthermore, gene editing tools for field bean will be developed to be able to validate the function of candidate genes.

Altogether, the results will provide new knowledge and new tools that can be used in plant breeding for the development of new high-yielding field bean varieties for Nordic latitudes.