Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research

For more than four decades, legume research programs have supported agricultural innovation, global collaboration and crop development to benefit developing countries and American farmers. 

The most recent program, the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research, focused on fostering dynamic, profitable and environmentally sustainable farming systems using cowpeas, common beans and other legumes.  

Managed by Michigan State University and funded through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the Feed the Future Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative, the Lab aimed to improve resilience, productivity, nutrition and economic opportunity through an integrated research and development agenda. 

However, amidst broader USAID budget cuts, the Lab was terminated in 2025. This brought an abrupt end to decades of progress, leaving a noticeable void and disrupting the training pipeline for future plant breeders and scientists.  

A 45-Year History of U.S.-Led Legume Innovation 

As the latest in a series of U.S.-funded legume research programs, the Lab marked the continuation of a coordinated national and global effort to improve legume systems. These programs formed a sustained investment in research, training and systems transformation that delivered direct and measurable returns. 

Program evolution timeline:  

• 1980–2006: Bean/Cowpea Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP) 
• 2007–2012: Dry Grain Pulses CRSP 
• 2013–2017: Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Grain Legumes 
• 2018-2025: Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research 

James Kelly, Ph.D., professor emeritus of plant breeding at MSU, played a pivotal role in these efforts from the beginning. 

"These programs weren’t just about science; they were about building capacity around the world while strengthening our own," said Kelly. "What began in 1980 as the Bean/Cowpea CRSP laid the foundation for global partnerships that made real improvements in plant breeding, food security and human health." 

Why Legumes Matter 

Legumes are nutrient-dense staple crops that play multiple critical roles in smallholder farming systems across developing countries. They significantly contribute to food and nutrition security, providing essential proteins and micronutrients that support healthy diets. In addition to their nutritional value, legumes serve as a vital source of income for farming households, often forming the backbone of rural economies. 

Beyond their economic and dietary benefits, legumes provide crucial support for livestock systems by serving as feed and fodder. Just as significantly, they enhance soil fertility through natural nitrogen fixation, reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers and promoting long-term sustainability in agricultural ecosystems. 

"In many of the countries where we worked, beans were the crop of the day for women," said Kelly. "They’re not just crops—they’re cultural staples and lifelines. The Lab brought in not only plant breeders, but also sociologists and health experts, because legumes sit at the intersection of nutrition, gender equity and rural development." 

David DeYoung, former manager of the Innovation Lab, emphasized the comprehensive nature of the Lab's mission. 

"The strength of the lab was in how it scaled research through systems thinking," said DeYoung. "We weren’t just breeding better beans. We were connecting nutrition, resilience, markets and livelihoods." 

A Systems Approach to Sustainable Impact 

The Lab's strength laid in its innovative systems approach, which connected research, scaling and market integration through three strategic pillars: best agronomic practices and services, targeted varietal scaling and development and inclusive input and market systems. 

This holistic model focused on increasing resilience to shocks, enhancing nutrition, and building human and institutional capacity for long-term sustainability. By embedding these goals across the research agenda, the Lab ensured that innovations addressed real-world constraints across the legume value chain. 

"The CRSP and the Lab let us reach out and work not just with fellow breeders, but with people in public health, sociology and economics," said Kelly. "That’s what made it so powerful—it integrated research with real-world application." 

From Global Research to Local Impact: Michigan’s Bean Industry 

While global in scope, the Lab had a significant and underrecognized impact on U.S. agriculture—especially in Michigan, North Dakota and Minnesota, which account for 77 percent of the nation's $1 billion annual dry edible bean industry. 

In Michigan, the Lab’s impact is deeply rooted in the state’s agricultural success. Approximately 63 percent of top-performing bean varieties can trace their lineage to cultivars developed with program-affiliated scientists. This includes the top black and small red bean varieties currently in production, each of which is directly connected to research conducted under the umbrella of the Innovation Lab and its predecessors. Michigan’s industry leadership is further evident as the state leads the nation in black, cranberry and small red bean production, and ranks second in navy bean output. 

"We completely changed the industry in Michigan thanks to germplasm sourced through these programs," said Kelly. "We went from a labor-intensive three-step harvest to developing upright varieties that could be directly harvested in one pass, reducing disease pressure and improving quality. The architectural traits came from Latin America, but we integrated them into Michigan beans." 

Scott Bales, a dry beans systems specialist in the MSU Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, has seen the long-term effects of this research firsthand. 

"These programs have a big impact on our breeding programs," said Bales. "A lot of varieties that our growers are currently raising can be traced back through these programs and these funding mechanisms. Unfortunately, I don’t believe a lot of producers know exactly how their varieties are related to this work." 

Innovation Paused, Progress at Risk 

The Lab’s termination has not only brought a sudden halt to a decades-long investment in global agricultural innovation but also left critical work unfinished, impacting regions and disciplines worldwide. 

"We were just starting to scale up innovations," said DeYoung. "And there’s still more value to unlock—more varieties, more partnerships, more resilience." 

Among the most pressing losses is the disruption of training for the next generation of plant breeders. These researchers are essential not just to the advancement of agriculture abroad but also to the continued competitiveness of U.S. farming. 

"Training a plant breeder is a long-term investment,” said Kelly. "You’re not just training someone in the classroom. You’re mentoring them in the field, helping them design research relevant to their communities and following up to ensure they have the resources to continue. Without that continuity, we risk losing an entire generation of scientists. That’s a huge, global loss." 

"It takes 10 years from start to finish to develop a commercial dry bean variety. Often this is done concurrently while training graduate students to become future breeders," said Bales. "You would hope that those students would be trained somewhere. But it’s not going to be with the focus on edible beans more than likely. And selfishly, that’s a huge, huge gap that we’ll need to cross." 

Sustaining the Seeds of Change 

Although the Lab’s funding has ended, its impact endures in the form of trained scientists, improved germplasm, global partnerships and market-ready innovations. The case for reinvestment is clear, especially if future funding cycles reopen. 

"The scientific development I’ve seen over the past few decades is remarkable," Kelly said. "We trained students in breeding, in molecular tools, in using software and data systems they’d never had access to before. And they took that knowledge home—not just to develop new varieties, but to become teachers, mentors and change-makers." 

"If funding priorities shift again, we need to show that MSU and programs like ours have the capacity, experience and impact to lead," said DeYoung. 

Building on his earlier point about the program’s influence on Michigan’s bean industry, Bales emphasized the broader scope of its contributions.  

"If we really understood how many of today’s varieties trace back to this research—and how many scientists and breeders were trained because of it—we’d see just how far the impact of these programs reaches," said Bales. "That’s the kind of legacy worth protecting."