Improvement of Faba Beans in China and Australia through germplasm evaluation, exchange and utilisation

This is part of ACIAR project with the same title. ICARDA will provide support for the Faba bean collection and evaluation as ICARDA is responsible for maintaining the World Faba Bean Collection. Dr Larry Robertson is its curator and will participate in the special germplasm collecting mission in South China. It is intended that ICARDA will be conduit for exchange of germplasm between China and ICARDA, and Australia and ICARDA. The genetic base for national improvement of Faba bean will be enhanced in both countries, and Chinese genes will be added to the World Collection.

To fill the gaps in the ICARDA Faba bean germplasm collection, a collection mission in the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan in collaboration with Tunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, The Zheijiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Australia's NSW Department of Agriculture took place in April - May 1996. The mission resulted in 67 accessions of landraces of Faba bean from remote areas of the provinces visited. At the completion of the collection, samples were cleaned and divided at the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Science into 3 portions, one each for ICARDA, the Chinese Academy and the local provincial Academy. The ICARDA material will be grown in isolation under quaratine, evaluated, and accessioned into the World Faba Bean Collection.