USAID-sponsored research on beans generates innovations that beneft U.S. producers and consumers of beans. Farmers in the United States grow nearly three million acres of dry beans and related crops, such as lentils and chickpeas, in the pulse family. American consumer demand for pulse-based food products, such as hummus, has grown from $10 million in the late 1990s to $700–$800 million in recent years.
USAID has long supported a bean research program at several American universities whose scientists have developed most bean varieties grown commercially in the United States. The program, originally known as the Bean/Cowpea Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP) (1978–2012) and now known as the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research (2013 to present), is based at Michigan State University.
