Enhancing faba bean seed colour and seed size uniformity to increase the value of faba beans and reduce risk of classification downgrades

The investment will investigate the genetic, physiological, biochemical and environmental drivers of visual grain quality in faba bean, including seed-coat oxidation and post-harvest darkening. It will develop and validate phenotyping and analytical tools, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital imaging and high-throughput phenotyping, for measuring seed-coat colour stability and seed-size uniformity. It will identify valuable genetic variation and deliver breeder-ready germplasm supported by genetic, phenotypic and validated molecular-marker datasets, in collaboration with Australian commercial and public faba bean breeding programs.