The biennial meeting of the Bean Improvement Cooperative took place in Fargo, North Dakota November 4 and 5. Disease resistance and nutrition were two talking points among researchers, organizations and other in attendance. Get the details in the Dry Bean Scene on the Red River Farm Network made possible, in part, by the Northarvest Bean Growers Association.
Over 150 researchers, organizations and bean industry professionals representing 12 countries gathered in Fargo, North Dakota for the Bean Improvement Cooperative biennial meeting. North Dakota State University plant pathologist Julie Pasche says the last time this meeting was held in Fargo was 2001. “There are both different challenges and the same challenges in bean production across the world. We learn from those challenges,” says Pasche.
Phil Mikals, a dry bean research geneticist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, is the current BIC president. Miklas says disease resistance is a top talking point “A lot of these diseases are world wide. For diseases that are a problem in the U.S., the expertise may be in South Africa or somewhere else.” Another area is nutrition. “In the last ten years, bean have shown to have health benefits beyond just fiber and folate.”
Dry bean and pulse researchers from North Dakota State University and the USDA-ARS Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center in Fargo are hosting the 2019 Bean Improvement Cooperative (BIC) and North American Pulse Improvement Association (NAPIA) biennial meetings back-to-back at the Radisson Hotel in Fargo in November. The BIC meeting will be November 3-6 and the NAPIA meeting will be November 6-8.
Both meetings will include oral and poster presentations by faculty and graduate students, a banquet or luncheon, awards ceremonies, organizational business meetings, social and networking events, and optional tours of NDSU research facilities and local Fargo food production industries.