Fighting Anaemia and Resisting Climate Change with Beans
Consuming special-bred high iron beans could enable African countries fight iron deficiency anaemia, an expert says. According to the WHO, every second pregnant woman and about 40 per cent of preschool children in developing nations are anaemic. Mercy Lung'aho, a nutritionist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Kenya, said that beans provides protein, complex carbohydrates and valuable micronutrients for more than 300 million people in the tropics. In an exclusive interview with SciDev.Net during Global Pulse Day last month (18 January), she said that beans are grown in Sub-Saharan Africa countries such as Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Sudan and Swaziland.
“Research is helping farmers beat climate change with more drought-resilient, pest-free beans,” said Lung'aho, adding that the discovery of 30 new types of “heat-beater” beans could keep production from crashing in large swaths of bean-dependent Africa and Latin America.
Jasleen Kaur