Twenty three years of bean research in Africa means one huge pile of reports, which equals one big headache if, for example, you want to research which ‘super’ bean variety had a huge impact on Ethiopia’s economy, and why.
Soon you can kiss the headaches goodbye. The coordinating team of the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) has just finished designing a “mega-database” to hold its vast vaults of bean research. Once up and running, all PABRA research, including which beans have been released and where, the impact of new farming techniques adopted in different countries, and progress in breeding nutrient rich varieties, will be available online for anyone to access.
The database was one of a number of activities discussed by the PABRA coordinating team in Arusha, Tanzania, last week. They also discussed progress in 2012, the forthcoming PABRA stakeholder forum – where members will chart the way forward for the next five years of bean research in Africa – and started planning for the next phase of PABRA, beginning April 2014.
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