Scientists are hailing a new breed of bean seed as a breakthrough, thanks to its ability to grow amid rising temperatures and yield more nutritional value, qualities they believe can thwart the anticipated destruction of nearly half of all bean production.

The new seed was launched on Wednesday by scientists from the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. As well as being more resilient to heat, the bean has a higher iron content.

About 400 million people rely on beans for subsistence, according to CGIAR. But by 2050 nearly half of the world’s bean production could be wiped out by rising temperatures if new seed varieties are not rolled out immediately.

“Beans are not very well adapted to high temperatures because they originated in the cool hills and mountains of central America, Mexico and South America. So pushing them down into the warmer areas has always been a challenge,” said Steve Beebe, a researcher at CGIAR, based at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia.

In 2012, CGIAR researchers began to test more than 1,000 types of beans in a bid to find “heat beater” beans able to grow amid high temperatures and drought. Scientists cultivated test plots on Colombia’s Caribbean coast and in greenhouses, before eventually discovering 30 heat-tolerant bean types that can withstand a 4C increase in temperature. CGIAR said it used natural breeding to discover the seed.

“In the short run, [bean production in] central America is going to be up against the wall, in terms of high temperatures, droughts and hurricanes. In east Africa currently, the bean production is at mid to higher altitudes, so – in the short-term – Africa won’t be under quite as much threat. But by the end of the century, east Africa will be under serious, serious threat from climate change,” said Beebe.

Beebe believes seeds should be distributed in small, affordable packages that farmers can test before committing to more.

“When you sell seeds in very small packets it gives the farmer the option to invest in a very small amount – it’s the cost of a cup of tea – and then test it in their back yard. If they like it, they can buy more,” he said.

“Otherwise you might have NGOs giving seeds away, which is not sustainable, or you have private sector firms selling 50kg bags, which farmers can’t afford.”

Rising temperatures and ambitious food security targets have created an urgent need for better seeds that can grow in warmer climates and yield more nutritional value to farms in the world’s poorest countries. But how this is done, and how farmers access the seeds, is hotly debated.



Earlier in the week, protestors gathered outside the London office of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to demonstrate against a meeting they said would promote corporate interests in Africa’s seed sector.

Dangling a cage full of seeds in front of passersby, they yelled, “Come and free the seeds!” before smashing open the cage, which they said symbolised the corporate takeover of Africa’s seed markets.

As seeds spilled on to the pavement, the meeting, hosted by the Gates Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAid), promoted production and distribution in Africa’s seed sector. The attendees were listed as key donor organisations, private seed companies and agricultural research centres, but did not include any groups representing farmers, according to a leaked document seen by the Guardian.



The Gates Foundation and USAid have said they are working to improve food security in the world’s poorest countries. USAid’s flagship programme, the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, has been criticised for requiring African governments to change laws and policies in favour of businesses.

Protesters outside the London office of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on 23 March 2015. Photograph: Jess Hurd/reportdigital/Global Justice Now

The Gates Foundation said the meeting would focus on “[encouraging] the development and promotion of appropriate models for the production and delivery of early generation seeds of improved varieties for a diversity of food crops in sub-Saharan Africa”.

Attendees are understood to have discussed seed markets for maize, rice, sorghum, cowpea, cassava and sweet potato in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

African agricultural groups said the conversation around improving Africa’s seed sector needs to involve groups that represent small-scale farmers.

The Gates Foundation was not immediately available for comment.

Mariam Mariet, director of the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), said: “Public-farmer partnerships that integrate farmer and scientific knowledge will generate a more accountable process, and produce longer-lasting and more meaningful solutions for African agricultural production, than these profit-driven, exclusive and narrow processes,” she said.



Ali-Masmadi Jehu-Appiah, chairman of Food Sovereignty Ghana, added: “This meeting will push this corporate agenda to hand more control away from our small farmers and into the hands of big seed companies.”

• This article was amended on 26 March to clarify that Ali-Masmadi Jehu-Appiah is the chairman of Food Sovereignty Ghana and not chairwoman as previously reported