NPZ UK, PGRO, YARA, and The University of Lincoln have partnered on a 3-year Innovate UK-funded project, ‘ANSWERS’ (Alleviating Nutritional Stress in Wider Environmental Rewards in Sustainable UK protein crop production).
The project aims to optimize yield, yield stability, and quality in winter and spring beans by developing new best practices for crop agronomy, according to a press release.
Michael Shuldham, pulse product manager at NPZ UK, emphasizes the importance of beans as a profitable break crop that improves soil structure and enhances wheat yields while maintaining a low carbon footprint. Beans also provide ecological benefits, attracting pollinators and wildlife. However, some growers experience significant yield variability, with many achieving over the PGRO’s control yield of 4.09 to 4.25 t/ha, while others may only reach 2 t/ha or less. The main goal of the ANSWERS project is to boost the productivity and reliability of winter and spring bean crops, making them a resilient UK-produced protein source to help replace imported soy in animal feeds.
“Therefore, ANSWERS will look at the reasons behind this variability in pulse yields by studying closely the macro and micro nutrition management of winter and spring sown beans to improve yield and yield stability through a series of four work packages,” Shuldham said.
- The first will develop nutrition-focussed selection criteria to develop high nutrient use lines and new crop traits to integrate in these lines.
- In the second, the University of Lincoln will examine the role of improved overall plant nutrition combinations on the yield and agronomy of beans from field and pot studies.
- The third will set up and run a series of trials, both on a replicated field plot and greenhouse plot basis, to explore all relevant factors in detail to develop a standardised nutrient package for beans to increase on-farm yields.
- The fourth package will set out ways that the results produced will be effectively disseminated and understood for on-farm adoption.
“One question we hope the project will answer for us is whether there is a varietal factor involved — can we further refine selection in our breeding programmes with some varieties responding better to differing input regimes?
“Also, on a broader perspective, do poorly understood nutrient requirements limit yield and drive yield instability — hence is this variability in yields due to different agronomy practices across farms?”
Shuldham said in summary, with “our project partners in ANSWERS, we will be able to bring a wide ranging and comprehensive approach to field bean research by bringing together the knowledge and skills of NPZ UK, PGRO, Yara and the University of Lincoln for the benefit of growers and agronomists as well as for the UK trade and end users.”
