Faba Bean

BAP GEAPSI EcolDurInternational audienceFaba bean is a grain legume producing protein-rich seeds and offering valuable ecological services in sustainable agriculture. Its wide-world distribution demonstrates a basic good capacity to adapt to diverse climates. Breeding represents a major lever to bring reliable yields, seed quality adapted to valuable uses, and new ecosystem services. Positive interactions with beneficial organisms such as root symbionts or pollinating insects may be amplified by the cultivar choice. Ideotypes targeted by breeders will be more efficiently achievable with well-characterised genetic resources and genomic tools. This chapter reviews the advances in both faba bean genetics and breeding, underlining the significant progress currently made on molecular genetics which will help and speed up the breeding efforts to improve targeted traits