Australian Researchers Seek New Fababean Genes in China

DONALD -- Mar 19/99 -- Australian researchers are turning to China to provide the key to faba bean research that will have benefits for farmers in northern New South Wales and Queensland.

Searching for improved faba bean lines with higher levels of disease resistance, NSW Agriculture Researcher at Tamworth, Dr Harry Marcellos, will next month visit China as part of a collaborative research project across seven provinces.

To feed its population of 1.2 billion people, China has become the world's largest producer of faba beans with a great diversity of varieties grown by peasant farmers for over 2,000 years.

An important component of cereal and cotton rotations in New South Wales and Queensland, faba beans improve the soil by increasing the amount of soil nitrogen available to the next crop and reducing the amount of soil borne disease like crown rot.

But while farmers have been keen to adopt faba beans into the cropping rotation, they have resisted growing current varieties because of diseases such as chocolate spot and rust.

"A major deficiency in current faba bean varieties is a lack of resistance to several diseases which may cause major reductions in yield and economic benefit," Dr Marcellos said.

"Developing new lines with resistance to diseases is a high priority for the research team based at Tamworth and Narrabri.

"The first step is to find genetic sources of resistance and so far we have screened hundreds of lines from different locations worldwide to identify those with resistance which can be used to breed new varieties."

With support from the Grains Research and Development Corporation and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), researchers are focussing their attention on China.

Never before accessed by the rest of the world, the genetic resources in China offer exciting prospects for faba bean research in Australia.

In his first visit to China in 1996, Dr Marcellos collected Chinese local varieties of faba beans from remote areas in the provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan.

His latest trip takes him to the southern sub-tropical provinces of Gunagdong and Guanxi.

Dr Marcellos said "The best lines from China and other parts of the world are presently being evaluated for early maturity, disease resistance and yield.

"We already have a much improved genetic base for developing new varieties, but there is still a long way to go before we come up with a variety that will be totally acceptable to Australian farmers.

"On present indications, this could be achieved within five years."