AJAR 2015 ARCHIVE

Abstracts

Food fortification and supplementation rarely benefit poor households. Since daily consumption of beans in Rwanda is one of the highest in the world, biofortified beans offer a unique opportunity for alleviating the prevalent micronutrient malnutrition. The objective of this research was to improve the micronutrient content of common beans consumed by most people in Rwanda using conventional plant breeding techniques. Biofortification breeding of Andean beans at RAB was done through single cross. Populations were developed in 2002 and advanced from F1 to F 7 following Pedigree advancement method. From the four successful crosses (CAB 2 X LAS 400, CAB 2 X BUBERUKA, NGWINURARE X CAB 2 and ANDx X UMWIZARAHENDA), promising lines were tested for different traits including seed iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) content. XRF mineral analysis was used to select the most promising advanced lines for Fe and Zn content. From this breeding program, five resulting varieties (RWV 2361, RWV 2887, RWV 3006, RWV 3316 and RWV 3317) were released and are being produced and consumed across Rwanda and has been shared with some counties in the network as biofortified bean varieties. RWV 3317 and RWV3316 have had high Fe of 95 and 92 ppm respectively.
Keywords:Conventional breeding, Iron and Zinc, Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris, L.).