ROME, Italy (Thomson Reuters Foundation) — Scientists have bred 30 new varieties of “heat-beating” beans designed to provide protein for the world’s poor in the face of global warming.
Beans have been described as “meat of the poor,” and are a key food source for more than 400 million people across the developing world.
However, the area suitable for growing them could drop 50 percent by 2050 because of global warming, endangering tens of millions of lives, scientists said.
“Small farmers around the world are living on the edge even during the best situation,” said Steve Beebe, a senior bean researcher.
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“Climate change will force many to go hungry, or throw in the towel, sell their land and move into urban slums if they don’t get support.”
Many of the new varieties, which are bred to resist droughts and higher temperatures, put traits from less popular strains, such as the tepary beans, into pinto, black, white and kidney beans.
Beebe said the new varieties were bred through traditional crossing of different species rather than genetic modification.
The discovery was made after scientists examined thousands of strains of beans stored in “gene banks”. They were actually searching for types of beans that could withstand poor soils when they found genes to help create the “heat-beater” beans, Beebe said.
Some of the 30 new types also have higher iron content to help increase their nutritional value, said CGIAR, the research group backing the new discoveries.
New heat tolerant beans might be able to handle average global temperature increases of 4 C, which is the medium-term worst case scenario for global warming.
The bean production area lost to climate change would be limited to about five percent if the new strains can handle even a 3 C rise in average temperatures, researchers said.
They say bean growers in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, including Nicaragua, Haiti, Brazil, Honduras, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, are likely to be the worst hit by global warming.
Some of these countries, which depend on small farmers to feed themselves, are not in good positions to adapt to a warming planet.
Clayton Campanhola, director of plant production and protection at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, said the discovery of new “climate smart” bean strains is a big deal.
“It’s important to have innovation,” Campanhola said.
“We need to promote access to these seeds for small farmers…. It’s a major achievement.”
