Revolutionising mungbean improvement

March 6, 2025

The Crawford Fund’s highly sought after Student Awards are one way we support and encourage the next generation of Australians into study, careers and volunteering in international agricultural research.

The awards are funded by our State and Territory Committees and made possible by organisations including ACIAR, international centres, Australian and overseas universities and NGOs who host our awardees.

Applications for the 2025 Student Awards, and the inaugural Henzell Awards are now open for students at Australian universities!

Sixteen talented university students from around Australia were awarded our 2023 Student Awards. As part of this cohort, we would like to share the experience of Shanice van Haeften, from the University of Queensland, who travelled to the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) in Taiwan to research the use of high-throughput phenotyping platforms to improve mungbean production.

Shanice’s research at WorldVeg focused on leveraging high-throughput phenotyping data to advance mungbean improvement through three interconnected activities: analysing comprehensive phenotypic data, engaging in international knowledge exchange, and building research collaborations.

“High-throughput phenotyping platforms are revolutionising crop improvement by enabling rapid and precise measurement of plant traits,” said Shanice.

“Through the Crawford Fund Student Award, I conducted research at WorldVeg to analyse canopy and reproductive growth dynamics in mungbean using their advanced FieldScan platform. This project aimed to understand how different canopy development behaviours influence yield development across a diverse mungbean population,” she said.

Mungbean is a sub-tropical legume crop that is grown across Asia and the Pacific.  In Australia, it is grown in Queensland and northern NSW. It is an important source of dietary protein and nutrients and due to its short crop cycle, is a valuable intercropping choice for growers and as a break crop for pests and diseases. Mungbean is currently grown over seven million hectares of land globally, however due to the increasing recognition in its value, for both consumers and producers, this area is steadily increasing. However, despite this growth, there is still a significant yield gap that exists, due to the crops vulnerability to abiotic and biotic stresses as well as the crops current growth habit.

“While substantial yield improvements have been made, the rate of genetic improvement in mungbean is limited. Traditional visual phenotyping approaches limit a breeder’s capacity to identify complex traits that could provide a yield benefit in different environments and agricultural systems. The development of high throughput phenotyping platforms offers an opportunity to overcome this bottleneck by rapidly screening traits at a large scale across entire growing seasons,” Shanice explained.

High throughput phenotyping platforms can vary in structures and can include stationary setups, such as phenotowers, gantry systems, and suspended rope systems, hand held manual tools such as RGB cameras, as well as mobile platforms, drones and satellites. These platforms can be outfitted with specialised sensors, such as multispectral and hyperspectral sensors, capable of capturing spectral data, gathering geometric and spatial information, and classifying crops within the field.

“The use of this technology in mungbean breeding would provide a valuable tool to support mungbean breeding efforts by enabling breeders to screen large populations for complex traits more efficiently and effectively and identify new genetic sources of variation for important traits,” she said.

“My project specifically aimed to dissect the canopy and reproductive growth dynamics of a diverse mungbean population using their high-throughput FieldScan platform. The findings from this study were able provide valuable insights into the mungbean’s canopy and reproductive traits and their variation across the diverse mungbean minicore collection. By examining the temporal changes in canopy structure, biomass accumulation, light interception, and other key traits, I was able to identify specific canopy traits that are associated with improved yield potential,” said Shanice.

“These findings could be used to contribute to the selection and definition of breeding targets, enabling the development of more productive and resilient mungbean varieties for the International Mungbean Improvement Network,” she said.

The timing of Shanice’s internship at WorldVeg coincided with the PhenoVeg symposium, a significant international event focused on high-throughput plant phenotyping innovation. This provided her with unique opportunities to connect with leading researchers from seven countries including India, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Germany, USA, and Australia; and, learn about emerging phenotyping technologies and their applications across different crop types

“The combination of advanced data analysis, international knowledge exchange, and network building has provided a strong foundation for applying these insights to enhance mungbean research in Queensland, particularly in my ongoing PhD work using unmanned aerial vehicles, such as drones, in phenotyping approaches,” she said.

Queensland’s mungbean industry stands to gain significantly from Shanice’s experience as she continues her PhD research using drones for crop phenotyping in Queensland, and the development and establishment of strong networks with international researchers and institutions from the Taiwan visit will enhance Queensland’s research capacity in advanced phenotyping and crop improvement, knowledge exchange, germplasm sharing, and joint research initiatives.

As an early career researcher, Shanice also travelled to the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India to undertake a two-day training workshop to boost knowledge and skills required to develop resilient mungbean varieties, as part of a ‘Capacity building for mungbean breeders initiative’ funded as part of the Crawford Fund QLD Committee’s International Engagement Awards.

Shanice’s work has also been profiled by WorldVeg; the Crawford Fund Journalism Award winner Natalie Parletta in The Guardian and Cosmos; and through the Crawford Fund’s social media channels.