EUFABA
Faba bean breeding for sustainable agriculture

All over Europe there is a growing concern among consumers, consumer organisations and policy-makers about the safety and impact on the environment of agricultural production of food and foodstuffs. A recent increase of plant protein demand has emerged, partly on account of the negative economic consequences and
the social alarm generated by Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) attributed to the use of animal-based cattle feed. To turn Vicia faba into a perfect candidate for a sustainable agriculture, the crop should be attractive both to producers and to users (human or animal nutrition). This is the goal of EUFABA project, aimed to provide the tools for the development of genotypes resistant to diseases and abiotic constrains such
as over-wintering ability, frost resistance and drought avoidance, and free of anti-nutritional factors.
End users of the project are faba bean breeders and producers and feed industry. End users are actively involved in the proposal ensuring an immediate exploitation and dissemination of results. Six partners (CR or AC) from different European countries are companies or associations of companies representing the faba bean producers. EUFABA contains participatory plant breeding elements that allow direct contact and co-operation
between EUFABA researchers and faba bean breeders and farmers.

Objectives
The general objective of the work is to combine the application of marker-assisted selection and conventional breeding methods to develop enhanced faba bean genotypes with characteristics of importance to sustainable agriculture across Europe. To achieve this, the crop should be attractive both to producers through the development of genotypes resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses and to users (humans or animals), through the development of plant genotypes free of antinutritional factors (ANFs). The resulting materials (cultivars or advanced lines) will fit the needs of UE agriculture and will be suitable for any further breeding methodology as required in the future.

Progress to Date
Most activities are in progress or just commenced. Activities of WP6 (Marker Assisted Breeding) just started in February 2004 and those of WP7 will start in February 2005. Details for a coordinated start were discussed at the Graz meeting. No special deviations from the Technical Annex are required, but dicussions are being hold in the convencience to apply for a extention of the project till December 2006 in order to benefit for an extra field season for field testing and validation.
Actions have been taken to coordinate activities of this project with those of the concerted action GLPRO (FP5) and the IP GRAIN-LEGUMES (FP6).
An accompanying measure for a final conference is envisage by the end of 2006. This will allow dissemination of the results to scientists and companies.

Classified in

Scientist responsible for the project