Snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.): advances in genetic improvement

Citation:

Singh BK, Lal H, Ranjan JK and Singh B. 2016. Snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.): advances in genetic improvement. In: National Symposium on Vegetable Legumes for Soil and Human Health (Singh B, Singh M, Rai AB, Singh PM, Prasad RN, Mishra GP, Singh BK, Ranjan JK, Devi J, Seth T, Nagendran K., Chaukhande P, Kumar R, Gautam KK, Gujjar RS and Kumar YB Eds). ICAR-IIVR, Varanasi, 12-14 February 2016, pp 125-136.

E-mail: bksinghkushinagar@yahoo.co.in

              Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), an important legume, is a rich source of protein, vitamins, minerals and fibre. The main categories of common beans, on the basis of uses, are dry beans (seeds harvested at complete maturity), snap beans (tender pods with reduced fibre harvested before the seed development phase) and shell beans (seeds harvested at physiological maturity) and. Snap bean is also known as French bean, garden bean, green bean, edible podded bean, string bean, fresh bean or vegetable bean. As the name implies, snap beans break easily when the pod is bent, giving off a distinct audible snap sound. The pods of snap beans (green, yellow and purple in colour) are harvested when they are rapidly growing, fleshy, tender (not tough and stringy), bright in colour, and the seeds are small and underdeveloped (8 to 10 days after flowering). After that period, excessive seed development reduces quality and the pod becomes fibrous, pithy and tough, and loses its bright colour. Snap bean seeds may also be used in dry static like the dry bean types. In that case pinto, kidney, pink, small red, etc. terms are used. In India, the dry bean type varieties are known as rajmash/rajmah, and snap bean named as rajmah phali in Hindi. Common beans display a wide range of growth habits from bush determinate to pole indeterminate types. Bush types are the most widely grown and are a relatively short duration crop; but on the other hand, in smallholder agriculture or in kitchen garden where land is scarce, labour-intensive high-yielding climbing beans getting popularity now-a-days. Dry bean is the largest pulse crop in the world with 23.60 mt of annual production grown on 29.29 mha area; and the top ten producing countries are Mayanmar (3.90 mt), India (3.63 mt), Brazil (2.79 mt), China (1.46 mt), USA (1.45 mt), Tanzania (1.20 mt), Mexico (1.08 mt), Kenya (0.61 mt), Ethiopia (0.46 mt) and Rawanda (0.43 mt). Moreover, snap beans’ global annual production and area is about 20.74 mt and 1.54 mha, respectively with maximum production in China (16.20 mt) followed by Indonesia (0.87 mt), India (0.62 mt), Turkey (0.61 mt), Thailand (0.31 mt), Egypt (0.25 mt), Spain (0.17 mt), Italy (0.14 mt), Morocco (0.13 mt) and Bangladesh (0.09 mt) [FAOSTAT 2012]. In India, it is grown on an area of about 1 lakh ha mainly in the states of Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, North-East hills, Nilgiri (Tamil Nadu), hills of central India, Palni hills (Kerala) Chickmagalur (Karnataka) and Darjeeling hills (West Bengal). The tender pods of snap bean are good source of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), phylloquinone (vitamin K), β-carotene (vitamin A), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), Mn, K, Ca, P, Fe and omega-3 fatty acid. It is a legume crop, do fix some nitrogen but the N fixing bacteria are not active as with other legumes; therefore there is need to fertilize the field with nitrogenous fertilizer to harness the yield potential.

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