The producers of the Cantonal Agricultural Center of Los Chiles, in the North Huetar Region, as well as Concepción de Pilas, El Águila, Guagaral, Chánguena and Veracruz de Pejibaye of Pérez Zeledón in the Brunca Region among others, collaborated closely with UCR and INTA scientists.

It was precisely in the latter location where the official release of the new variety was made at the end of December last year under the Chorotega language name "Nambí", in honor of cacique Nambí, who governed Nicoya.

The original seed was donated by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) based in Colombia, which performed the crossing with the support of El Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School, also known as Zamorano University.

The variety obtained is characterized by being tolerant to terminal drought, which is extremely important since the production of beans has been particularly affected by climate change.

The seed was introduced to Costa Rica in 2011, as part of the effort called “regional trial of black bean lines tolerant to the effects of climate change with emphasis on drought and high temperatures.”

Participatory Plant Breeding

This seed was named SEN52, an experimental line of beans, during its testing phase to adapt it to the Costa Rican territory and climate through the participatory plant breeding methodology, through which scientists closely collaborate with organized bean producer communities.

This methodology integrates producers from the beginning of the process of local acclimatization of the variety until its release, which allows the farmer to learn and get used to the seed before its release; the farmer is even given the opportunity to suggest when the new grain release is required.

The experiments in the adaptation process were jointly coordinated by Dr. Néstor Chaves- Barrantes, researcher at Estación Experimental Agrícola Fabio Baudrit Moreno (EEAFBM) [Fabio Baudrit Experimental Station] from UCR, and Juan Carlos Hernández-Fonseca from INTA.

Dr. Chaves highlighted the international collaboration, since these seeds are originally crossed by El Zamorano and CIAT, who then provide the populations to different countries in the continent. Then, each nation is responsible for adapting them to their territory.

In the case of Costa Rica, he said that “we bring them here, we shake them a little bit and then we test them in the fields of producers until we get to the varieties we want.”

"El Zamorano and CIAT work both their own crossing projects that then share with us, or they create crossings for us upon request due to a particular interest, thus populations of a Creole variety have resulted and of which they have no interest neither for Honduras nor Colombia. But it is of a very particular interest for us.”

"In those cases, they make the crossing, they send us the population and here we keep evaluating and discarding what does not work for us until we reach a specific variety,” explained the researcher.

As for the Nambí variety, he said that it was tested in different bean areas of the national territory and can be grown practically in all of them; however, it works better in the North Huetar and Brunca regions.

The researcher said that this is the first bean variety of others that will be released in the future in response to the effect of climate change on the production of this basic grain in the Costa Rican diet.