Pan-Africa
Bean Research Alliance

27 countries are

Angola, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

About Us

Established in 1996, the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) is a consortium of African regional bean networks:the Eastern and Central Africa Bean Research Network (ECABREN), the Southern Africa Bean Research Network (SABRN) and the West and Central Africa Bean Research Network (WECABREN). The 3 consist of National African Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in a total of 27 member countries within Sub-Saharan Africa, an international research organisation (CIAT) and a number of donor organisations.

PABRA's goal is to enhance the food security, income and health of resource-poor farmers in Africa through research on beans. To achieve this goal, PABRA works in partnership with farmers and rural communities, NGOs, traders and other private sector partners.

The Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance gratefully acknowledges support for its activities from the following donors: the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the US Agency for International Development. The views expressed are not necessarily those of these organisations.

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OUR PURPOSE
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OUR AIMS
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PABRA's goal is to enhance the food security, income and health of resource-poor farmers in Africa through research on beans. To achieve this goal, PABRA works in partnership with farmers and rural communities, NGOs, traders and other private sector partners. The major beneficiaries of PABRA's work are rural women, who are primarily responsible for the crop's production and post harvest handling.

Develop and disseminate new higher yielding bean varieties.
Improve production through better crop, soil and pest management by farmers.
Achieve wider impact by extending farmer access to new bean technologies to all main bean production areas in Africa.
Improve and disseminate understanding of how communities in diverse situations can best achieve food security and improve incomes.

Strengthen the capacity of NGOs and local agricultural services and strengthen the research sector (NARS, farmer research groups).

PABRA, which started off as a CIAT project, has evolved to an African partnership programme by strengthening the national bean programmes and by supporting the regional networks.

It facilitates collaborative research within and between the networks by providing a forum for building and maintaining linkages to multiple partners (researchers, non-government organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs) and farmers). These linkages are maintained through joint planning, agreed division of responsibilities, joint implementation of activities and joint reporting.

The collaborative approach facilitates the sharing of knowledge, the exchange of germplasm and the dissemination of technologies and methods across national frontiers. The Alliance also facilitates capacity building. With PABRA support, the regional networks identify, develop and deploy national expertise in a range of areas such as plant breeding, farmer participatory research, seed dissemination, agroenterprise development, and integrated pest and disease management (IPDM).

BEAN SEED PRODUCTION IN RWANDA: ONE FARMER'S STORY

In Rwanda, the common bean Phaseolus vulgaris top the current list of priority crops of the Ministry of Agriculture. They are grown by 97% of farmers and supply 65% of the dietary protein requirements to rural and urban populations. In the recent past, the market-driven bean breeding and promotion of bean-based technologies initiated by the bean network ECABREN (Eastern and Central Africa Bean Research Network) and its partner CIAT in the region is bearing fruit. The adoption rate of improved climbing bean varieties in Rwanda is estimated at 95% and the impact of released climbing beans by the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Rwanda (ISAR) has been quite impressive.

For decades, Bizimana, a farmer from Byumba province in Northern Rwanda, dreamt of a better life for himself and his family of seven. Byumba province is endowed with fertile and productive soils but each household holds only less than a half hectare on average. Most farmers in Rwanda rent additional agricultural land in order to produce enough to eat and to meet their other needs.

Bizimana's prayers were partly answered after he was identified by ISAR as a potential lead partner farmer in participatory variety selection and dissemination of improved bean varieties project. This initiative was the result of collaboration between ECABREN and ISAR Bean Research and the National Seed Services (SNS) for field inspectorate and seed certification work and an FAO programme in Rwanda for the crucial link to farmer producers and urban consumer markets.

After a couple of seasons' involvement in the project, Bizimana chose to grow a new navy bean variety CAB 2, selected at ISAR and locally called Nyiramata (which means valuable as milk). He also grew a yellow-seeded cultivar, G2331 (Mamesa) cultivated regionally. These two varieties have become popular among farmers and consumers because of their high productivity (from 3 to 4.5 ton per hectare), fast cooking time, taste and good canning quality.

"Each season, I plant about one hectare. I invite SNS officials for field inspection and seed certification. I sell all the stock, about 2 to 3 tons of certified seed to the FAO programme, NGOs and other farmers at a premium price of 250-300 FRW/Kg (about 0.5 USD). The seed is resold or loaned to more farmers in Byumba and also neighbouring provinces of Ruhengeri and Gisenyi. Residual grain is consumed or sold for food in town markets, hotels, schools and prisons. Every grain is valuable", says Bizimana.

NAVY BEAN PRODUCTION IN ETHIOPIA: ONE FARMER'S EXPERIENCE

Haile has been an outgrower for Ethiopian Seed Enterprises for five years now, producing highly marketable foundation seed for local communities, NGOs and co-operative unions. Amongst the varieties he grows are Mexican 142, Awash 1 and Awash Melka. Haile offers employment or jobs to community members. Six permanent field workers and 30 casual labourers are employed during the growing season.

He is also a bean trader in his own right, selling up to 200 tons of seeds purchased from other farmers and 300 tons from his own fields. Using the proceeds from beans, Haile has purchased a water pump and a lorry and built a brick house for his family. He also has money to lease the extra land he needs for his expanding bean enterprise. Currently, Mr. Haile owns 25 ha of the newly introduced navy bean variety called Awash Melka which is the product of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and the regional bean network-ECABREN (Eastern and Central Africa Bean Research Network) funded by a consortium of donors to PABRA (Pan-African Bean Research Alliance).

Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance