Climate projections suggest that by 2050, 50% of the countries bean production will be lost if the farmers don’t have access to the new variety bean.

Scientists at International Center for Tropical Agriculture, or CIAT have been working with different varieties of beans, so that they could find out a variety which can survive on poor soils.

But they discovered a variety which can survive in warmer climate. This is breakthrough discovery; by this many countries can survive bean supply by 2050.

Beans originated from high latitudes but as the world is getting warmer developing countries could lose this good source of protein and vitamins

Steve Beebe – a senior bean researcher at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) explained that bean plants are very sensitive to heat.

Beebe says, “Typically, beans are not grown in environments where the night temperature is above 18C (64F) or 19C, night temperatures are especially critical because the bean flower pollinates itself during night hours and the pollination process is very sensitive to temperature, when we talk about heat tolerance, we are especially concerned about the night-time temperatures.”

They have tested thousand varieties of beans from gene bank and they found out 30 varieties which can survive in warmer climate.

They have tested thousand of varieties of bean in low-altitude areas in Columbia where nighttime is hotter. They found out the beans that can survive in hotter climate came from popular strains like kidney, black, white beans.

They said that these varieties are bred through traditional crossing of different species and not through genetic engineering which is not accepted by many sectors of society.