Improved Bean Seed Report

In rural smallholder communities in these parts of Africa, common beans are the most important source of dietary protein and an important source of vitamins and essential minerals. In addition, as beans are legumes, they play a critically important role in smallholder agroecology and soil fertility due to their ability to fix nitrogen into the soil. The
importance of beans for health, farm productivity, and livelihood generation is greatest for the most vulnerable subset of smallholder farmers, particularly women, children, and the most impoverished families. An estimated 90 percent of bean production, storage, and trading is led by women. Over the past few years, One Acre Fund has been making
major investments to bring the best bean varieties and agronomy to hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers across Eastern and Central Africa. In Kenya and Rwanda, One Acre Fund tested improved bean seeds in the research station and in farmers’ fields to verify the productivity potential across a wide range of conditions, and to collect farmer feedback on taste and preference.