Overview

To improve the production of beans by small subsistence farmers through agronomic investigations. To conduct research aimed at understanding the daylength, temperature and genetic bases for variations in days to maturity and adaptation of bean cultivars. This will include research to breed higher yielding bean cultivars using physiological-genetic information derived from simplified growth analysis of yield trials; to determine how the several variables of climate affect the adaptation, growth and yield of beans; to identify genes that facilitate adaptation, growth and higher yield in different environments; and to explore the merits of new combinations of these genes for maximizing adaptation, growth and yield; to conduct research on management practices that maximize expression of higher yield in improved genotypes.