Project Briefs Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Grain Legumes 2014

With approximately 11 million habitants, Guatemala is mostly a rural country, with 60 percent of the population living on farms and 50 percent of the population indigenous. Maize and beans are the main staple food in most households, with a per capita consumption of 9.4 kg per year. Since few other sources of protein are available, this amount is not sufficient to ensure an acceptable nutritional quality, especially within poor households. The highlands of Guatemala are a unique bean producing region where intercropping (locally known as milpa) is still the main production system, mostly with a maize–bean association. The system uses climbing beans that grow around the corn stalks either concurrently or in a relay system. Unfortunately, on-farm productivity of these climbing beans is approximately one-third of their genetic yield potential, mostly due to the lack of improved cultivars able to withstand biotic and abiotic stresses. This low productivity significantly impacts food security and nutritional quality in the region, especially among women and children. Historically, climbing beans have received less attention and breeding efforts in comparison with the bush-type beans commonly grown in the lowlands, as shown by the significant yield gap between regions. The Legume Innovation Lab is starting a new project focused in the highlands of Guatemala with the goal of developing improved varieties of climbing beans that would increase productivity in the region. In addition, the Guatemalan climbing beans are a unique group of germplasm that has not been studied extensively and could offer new genetic variation for traits of economic importance. Problem Statement and Justification Dietary recommendations from the Guatemalan government suggest a 75:25 percent daily ratio of maize:bean for a good nutritional balance between carbohydrates and protein intake; however, collected information suggests that the actual daily maize:bean ratio in rural households is approximately 97:3 percent. As expected, the resultant lack of protein intake has reduced the nutritional quality in many households, significantly affecting children. Severe malnutrition cases and even deaths are reported in rural areas, mostly in the highlands. Beans are grown on 31 percent of the agricultural land and mostly in the lowto mid-altitude regions (0– 1500 masl [meters above sea level]) in a monoculture system. In contrast, intercropping (milpa) is the main production system in the highlands, where maize–bean is the most common crop association. The main bean producers are small landowners, largely in the highlands. These farmers plant 66 percent of the total area planted to beans in the country, yet the production is only 53 percent of the total national bean