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Imprint
Development of winter faba beans for organic farming
Project
Project code: 02OE451/2
Contract period: 15.10.2002
- 30.04.2004
Budget: 12,707 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
Vicia faba L., the faba bean, is a grain legume like pea, lupin, lens, chick pea, kidney bean and soya bean. The BSE crisis and frequent refusal of transgenic soy bean as feed caused homegrown protein crops like faba bean to become increasingly attractive. In Germany and neighbouring countries, faba beans are grown as spring crops, whereas winter beans are known and grown in UK. German winters are frequently too cold. Spring faba bean are often sown too late because of too-wet-to-sow soils in spring time. This difficulty could be circumvented by autumn sowing. Winter beans flower and mature earlier, they do suffer less from mid-summer drought. After an earlier harvest there is more remaining time to mechanically control weeds and to sow an early next crop, thus make better use of the residual nitrogen. Since the eithies we work at the Göttingen institute on a genetically very wide winter faba bean population. This population was now grown at 24 very diverse locations in Germany (see final report 02OE451/1). Additionally, about 50 families of this population were tested at Göttingen at two contrasting organic sites to check for differences in winter hardiness. The extremely cold winter 2002/03 (minus 19 °C without snow at Göttingen) allowed for a very intensive selection for winter hardiness. The selected material was used for crosses, e.g. with a Vicin/Convicin-poor genotype (cv. Mélodie). Moreover, 350 lines from this population were characterized agro-morphologically incl. their seed protein content. These data lead to genetic material which is promising for organic farmers. The presently finished project allowed to embarc into the new, collaborative project 2803OE438 with organic farmers, where common breeding work aimes at profitable, ecologically adapted organic winter faba beans.
Section overview
Subjects
- Crop Production
- Plant Breeding
- Organic Farming
Framework programme
Federal Organic Farming Scheme and other forms of sustainable agriculture (BÖLN)
