An initiative aimed at boosting bean production in the UK by identifying definitive best practices has been launched.
Beans are well-known to growers for their ability to fix nitrogen and leave it in the soil for the next crop, making them an important break crop in UK rotations.
However, the adoption of bean cultivation has been limited by the perception that they are unreliable, despite the numerous benefits they offer, according to a press release.
“While there are scientific publications that clearly demonstrate across north-west Europe that beans are no more unreliable than other spring sown crops the perception is real and impactful,” says PGRO’s Chief Executive Roger Vickers.
“The current recommendations in RB209 have not changed in decades and it is not at all clear from where the recommendations originated. Seeing this as a possible weakness in the agronomic approach to bean cropping, we are embarking on a study that aims to establish new best practices and recommendations.”
To address this, a new project called ANSWERS — Alleviating Nutritional Stress for Wider Environmental Rewards in Sustainable UK Protein Crop Production — will bring together PGRO, NPZ (LSPB), Yara, and the University of Lincoln, alongside real-world field-scale trials. The project aims to develop practical nutrient plans to boost nodule activity, nitrogen fixation, productivity, yield stability, protein content, and climate resilience.
“ANSWERS will use data-driven solutions to help move UK food production towards a sustainable, productive, net-zero emissions future,” adds Vickers.
“The goal is to optimise the on-farm yield and quality of faba bean as an alternative UK-produced protein source, to directly influence significant improvement in productivity, sustainability, the environmental impact of farming, progression towards net zero emissions and help create resilient food supply chains.”
ANSWERS will build on recent studies conducted by PGRO, Yara, and the Bean YEN network, which identified poorly understood nutrient requirements as a major barrier to increasing production.
After gathering data from 318 farms, Yara discovered that significant portions of faba beans are deficient in potassium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, and boron. These nutrient deficiencies hinder nodule activity, nitrogen fixation, and the plant’s resilience to environmental stress.
Vickers said that despite their indisputable benefits, only 3.8% of UK arable land is currently used for field bean production.
“The low area of pulses reflects variable yields (mean 5.1t/ha, range 1-8t/ha) and low gross margins in some years, but potential yield has been shown to be much higher – as much as 13.7t/ha in field beans. In 2024 we saw some UK farms achieving over 9t/ha.
“There is significant potential to increase area, which would help to replace imported soya in animal feeds and reduce the carbon footprint of animal production systems.”
eansANSWERS is funded under the DEFRA Farming Innovation Programme Small R&D Partnership Projects competition and will run for three years.
