Faba bean, a staple part of diets and crop rotations in West Asia, North and East Africa region and a quiet overachiever for millennia - providing protein-rich food for millions, fixing soil nitrogen, and boosting subsequent crop yields - is finally getting the scientific attention it deserves due to its potential resilience in the face of climate-change.

Yet improving faba bean as a climate-smart crop through breeding is like solving a giant puzzle without knowing where to start - its genome is immense and complex. But ICARDA scientists, in collaboration with an international team of researchers, have cracked part of the code and are now deploying Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS) to better understand the faba bean genome and applied genomic selection tools into the breeding program. Their breakthrough promises faster, cheaper ways to develop new varieties made for a warming world.