A consortium of UK research organisations have won £3 million of funding to enable the development of climate resilient legume crops (pulses).
The John Innes Centre is the lead organisation within The Pulse Crop Genetic Improvement Network (PCGIN) which started in 2008.
It has received the aforementioned funding boost from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for the next five years.
The money will support PCGIN-affiliated researchers and its stakeholder network in delivering its mission – to provide improved breeding material for the cultivation of peas, beans and other pulses in the UK.
Pulse crops are an important alternative protein source, and their cultivation improves soils in rotation schemes, reducing the need for nitrogen fertilizer.
Funding
The research will address existing and new threats from pests and diseases, such as root rot in pea and bruchid beetle in faba bean.
It will also target nutritional traits such as protein content, minerals and flavour components.
Prof. Janneke Balk, group leader at the John Innes Centre and co-lead of PCGIN said:
“Over the last 17 years PCGIN has made critical contributions to pea and faba bean development that are now close to being brought to market.
“In the new funding phase, we will expand our research to lentil and common bean, which could be grown more widely in the future as we see higher temperatures in the UK,” he said.
PCGIN, led by the John Innes Centre, is in collaboration with the University of Reading, NIAB in Cambridge, the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth University, and PGRO, the Processors and Growers Research Organisation, Peterborough.
The consortium will also look at future climate impacts on UK pulse crops using models from the Met Office.
In addition to conventional genetic improvement, gene editing methods will be developed for pea and faba bean.
Dr. Sanu Arora, group leader at the John Innes Centre and co-lead of PCGIN, commented:
“The next five years are key for developing new pulse crops for the UK. We need to work closely with farmers and growers to ensure that our research is targeting the traits that they need in their fields.”
Legumes, including peas, beans and lentils have a major environmental benefit because they can harvest, or fix, nitrogen from the air with the help of symbiotic bacteria in the soil.
This means that they can be grown without the need for inorganic sources of nitrogen, in the form of fertilisers, which have a damaging impact on biodiversity and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.