Chapters 5.33
5.33 -Adopting Tepary Bean to Combat Drought
Jacob Brough, University of Guelph, Canada
Suggested citation for this chapter.
Brough,J. (2022) Adopting Tepary Bean to Combat Drought , In Farmpedia, The Encyclopedia for Small Scale Farmers. Editor, M.N. Raizada, University of Guelph, Canada. http://www.farmpedia.org
Background: Tepary Bean
Tepary Bean (Phaseolus acutifolius) is an annual legume originating from the Tehuacán Valley in Mexico dating back 5000 years ago (Small, 2014). Indigenous peoples cultivated tepary bean for thousands of years, understanding its significance as a drought resistant crop in Mexico's arid climate. One tribe of native North Americans cultivated tepary bean to the point of being dubbed “The Bean People” (Small, 2014). Wild tepary bean forms weak herbaceous vines that cling to shrubs, trees or other forms of support and can grow up to 4 meters in length. Domesticated tepary bean is bushier and self standing. A domestic tepary bean plant will on average grow to a height of 12 to 30 inches and 20 inches in diameter.. The species has trifoliate leaves with slender leaflets. During flowering, tepary bean produces white or very light colored flowers.. The seeds are located in small pods, usually around 1.25 to 3 inches long and contain on average 2 to 7 seeds (Wolf, 2018). Individual seeds are on average 8 mm in length and 6 mm in width which is relatively small when compared to those of the common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris (Small, 2014). Tepary bean is also able to self pollinate. Wild tepary beans grow naturally across southern North America and Mexico. While domesticated tepary beans are transported and grown in dry arid countries around the world (Wolf, 2018).
Combating Drought
The climate change impact that the adoption of tepary beans strives to solve is drought. Due to climate change, many African nations are experiencing “increases in temperatures and rainfall variability, and increased probability of extreme events such as droughts and flash floods” (Rurinda et al., 2014). Tepary bean is a highly resilient legume that contains “the potential to provide greater resilience to cope with the climate change challenge” (Jiri and Mafongoya, 2017) . This drought and heat tolerant legume is now cultivated mainly in hot, arid areas, particularly Arizona, New Mexico, and the Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa, mostly as a subsistence crop on small farms, but also with some commercial production (Small, 2014). African countries have also begun to implement this drought resistant crop into the semi-arid regions of tropical countries. Most other species of bean will fail in these areas. In Africa, tepary bean has become increasingly popular in the countries of Botswana, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda, as well as countries around the world suffering similar problems such as Australia, Burma and India (Small, 2014). This is due to the many drought resistant characteristics that Tepary bean holds over other members of the Phaseolus family.
Tepary bean is among the most heat and drought resistant legume species that can be grown in climate change prone farming areas (Jiri and Mafongoya, 2016). As the world continues to be subjected to extreme temperatures, crops must be able to withstand the extremes of their environments. Tepary bean is able to withstand an average daily temperature of 30 degrees celsius whilst withstanding an average nightly temperature of 8 degrees celsius. In terms of rainfall, Tepary bean can grow in areas where annual rainfall is 400 mm to 1700 mm. However, when annual rainfall exceeds 1000 mm, the plants tend to grow vegetatively and produce less seed (Small, 2014). This is substantially less than the requirements for common bean at 350 mm to 500 mm of annual rainfall. Even though common bean survives best in humid conditions, it is subject to common fungi and bacterial blight. On the other hand tepary bean is quite resistant to common bacterial blight which affects common bean (Souter et al., 2017).
How to Grow Tepary Bean
To plant tepary bean without the use of equipment, one must plant one bean every 4 inches in rows that are 12 to 16 inches apart – simple pre-measured wooden sticks and a string can facilitate such spacing. Each bean must be planted 1 to 1.5 inches deep. Planting should be done at the beginning of the summer season (Wolf, 2018). Prior to planting, coating the beans in an inoculum with symbiotic rhizobia bacteria will promote nitrogen fixation. Tepary bean especially nodulates well with Rhizobium sp. strain R3254, fixing up to 260 kg N ha-1 (Jiri and Mafongoya, 2016). No special equipment or grueling labour is needed to plant tepary beans, allowing subsistence farmers to plant quite easily. For tepary bean light sandy soils are optimal whilst heavy clay and waterlogged soils are unsuitable. It is also resistant to soil salinity and mildly resistant to alkaline soils (Small, 2014). Tepary bean prefers soil with a potential pH level of 5.8 to 6.5 (Mandizvo et al., 2017), while it is still possible to grow in soils with levels ranging from 5.2 to 7.2, making it more resistant than common bean. Some subsistence farmers within Africa may have some sort of irrigation system, while many have no system at all. Tepary seed yields of 500–1000 kg/ha (450–900 pounds/acre) are commonly reported, but with supplemental irrigation, harvest weights exceeding 4600 kg/ha (4000 pounds/acre) have been reported (Small, 2014).
Nutrition
The effects of tepary bean consumption in nutritional and health status are relatively similar to pulses indigenous to African regions. Tepary bean holds lower amounts of protein than cowpea and fava bean but are comparable to most grain legumes (Tinsley et al.,1985). This is very important to subsistence farmers who may not be able to access sufficient meat for protein
Cost effectiveness and accessibility
With the average retail cost of tepary bean being $3.25 USD per 7 grams (approx 50 beans) and the GDP of Africa as a whole being $1,720, to minimize financial costs, a farmer can purchase a small number of seed in the first season and then multiply their own seeds for future years or exchange seeds with early adopting farmers on a loan basis. Farmer cooperatives or non governmental organizations could also assist with seed access and training. Farm Africa and One Acre Fund are only some examples. Working with NGOs to help subsistence farmers adopt tepary beans will make this beneficial crop more accessible to the poorest of small scale farmers. The links below are organizations to obtain seed from. A key limitation to adoption may be cultural, whether household members like the taste of the crop.
Helpful Links to Get Started
Farm Africa is an organization that helps educate subsistence farmers to help them use their land in the best possible way. Whether that be for highest profit or for the highest yields. Helping farmers recover from droughts and floods. https://www.farmafrica.org/us/what-we-do/our-work
One Acre Fund is an organization that looks to reduce the malnutrition in African farmers by helping increase possible yields for their crops and educating them on food nutrition. https://oneacrefund.org/what-we-do/farmers-first/
Native Seeds Search: A nonprofit seed conservation organization located in Arizona. They produce drought resistant crops in the arid region of the southwest to provide aid to sustainable farming. https://www.nativeseeds.org/collections/tepary-beans#
The Rancho Gordo-Xoxoc company: Helping small scale farmers in Mexico by buying their drought resistant crops and selling them online across the globe. https://www.ranchogordo.com/collections/heirloom-beans
References
1. Jiri, O., Mafongoya, P., & Chivenge, P. (2017). Climate smart crops for food and nutritional security for semi-arid zones of Zimbabwe. African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, 17(03), 12280–12294. doi: 10.18697/ajfand.79.16285 https://go-gale-com.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA508201232&v=2.1&u=guel77241&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w
2. Jiri, O., Mafongoya, P., (2016). Tepary Bean: A Climate Smart Crop for Food and Nutritional Security. Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences, 06(03). doi: 10.4172/2155-9600.1000490 https://www.longdom.org/open-access/tepary-bean-a-climate-smart-crop-for-food-and-nutritional-security-2155-9600-1000490.pdf
3. Mandizvo, T,. Ezekia, S,.Soropa, G,. Tsekenedza, S,. Ndowora, T,.Shepherd, M,. and Mashingaidze, A. (2017) Evaluation Of Common Bean (Phaseolus Vulgaris L.) Genotypes For Disease Tolerance Under Rain-Fed Conditions. Agriculture and Forestry 63: 97-108. https://doi.org/10.17707/agricultforest.63.3.10. https://search-proquest-com.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/docview/1952385171?rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo
4. Rurinda, J., Mapfumo, P., Wijk, M. V., Mtambanengwe, F., Rufino, M., Chikowo, R., & Giller, K. (2014). Sources of vulnerability to a variable and changing climate among smallholder households in Zimbabwe: A participatory analysis. Climate Risk Management, 3, 65–78. doi: 10.1016/j.crm.2014.05.004 https://www-sciencedirect-com.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/science/article/pii/S2212096314000229?via%3Dihub
5. Small, E. (2014) Tepary Bean – an Ideal Arid Zone Crop. Biodiversity 15: 220–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2014.903203. https://journals-scholarsportal-info.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/pdf/14888386/v15i2-3/220_4tbaiazc.xml
6. Souter, J. R., Gurusamy, V., Porch, T. G., & Bett, K. E. (2017). Successful Introgression of Abiotic Stress Tolerance from Wild Tepary Bean to Common Bean. Crop Science, 57(3), 1160. Doi: 10.2135/cropsci2016.10.0851 https://dl-sciencesocieties-org.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/publications/cs/abstracts/57/3/1160
7. Wolf, M. 2018. Plant Guide for tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius). USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, Tucson Plant Materials Center. Tucson, AZ 85705. https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs-pg_phac.pdf
8. Tinsley, A. M., J. C. Scheerens, J. O. Alegbejo, F. H. Adan, K. C. Krumhar, L. E. Butler, and M. J. Kopplin. (1995) Tepary Beans ( Phaseolus Acutifolius Var. Latifolius): a Potential Food Source for African and Middle Eastern Cultures. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01092124