Pulse Breeding Australia: Faba Bean Breeding

Faba bean is one of Australia's major cool season food legumes with production extending over a wide eco-geographic range with the major production area in the southern region (Victoria, South Australia) and a smaller area in the northern region (northern NSW and southern Queensland). These regions encompass a diversity of environments ranging from Mediterranean and Temperate environments to sub-tropical ones. As such, it is necessary to breed a number of varieties that have a broad range of adaptive traits in order to maintain yield stability and an adequate level of disease resistance.

This investment supports the Faba bean breeding program that is targeting a number of traits including heat, frost and resistance to a number of fungal and viral diseases (ascochyta blight, rust, chocolate spot, Cercospora leaf spot, bean leaf-roll virus (BLRV) and bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV)). In addition, breeding for tolerance to Group B herbicides has progressed to the stage where the tolerant variety PBA Bendoc was released in 2018. Further opportunities exist for improving tolerance of faba bean to herbicides.