Research Objective
To develop early-maturing, high-yielding, and disease resistant faba bean cultivars adapted to Saskatchewan growing regions.
The potential for faba bean in Canada is large. With increasing demand for plant-protein products, and the ecological benefits and reduced fertilizer costs from efficient nitrogen fixation (Khazaei et al, 2021), faba bean is poised to become a major crop. For this to happen, improvements must be made to faba bean varieties to make the crop more reliable for Canadian producers. This project targets two of the most concerning issues: days to maturity and chocolate spot.
Large mass-crossing events and severe selections will be used to quantitatively breed for both of the traits of interest. Variation in maturity timing exists in populations of interest in the first reporting year of this project, which will be targeted for parents in ongoing crossing. Other interesting traits that may aid in harvestability and dry down of cultivars are also being analyzed. Varied responses to chocolate spot infection following inoculation of a field population allowed for selection of lines of interest that will be tested in future years of this project.
The results of this project will lead to new cultivars that will be used to develop varieties more agronomically reliable to allow Saskatchewan farmers to increase production and meet potential future demand.