Integrated Orobanche Management on Faba bean: Resistant Faba Bean and Low-Dose Herbicide Package

Restoring faba bean productivity by defeating Orobanche.

Integrated Orobanche Management (IOM) is a proven integrated weed management package that combines a partially resistant faba bean variety with low-dose Glyphosate application to effectively control Orobanche crenata, a major constraint to faba bean production. By restoring productivity in infested fields, the technology contributes to national food security, improves household nutrition through increased pulse production, and enhances soil fertility by promoting faba bean cultivation within crop rotations. Successfully validated through participatory Farmer Research Extension Groups (FREGs), the technology has demonstrated high farmer acceptance and is ready for large-scale dissemination across Orobanche-affected regions.

This technology is pre-validated.

9•9

Scaling readiness: idea maturity 9/9; level of use 9/9

Positive impacts: 12

Social Group	Positive Impacts
Women smallholder faba bean farmers	• Improved access to resistant faba bean varieties and integrated crop management practices. • Increased household food and nutrition security through higher availability of a protein-rich crop. • Greater participation in crop production decisions and potential income generation from improved yields.
Resource-poor smallholder farmers in Orobanche-affected areas	• Recovery of previously low-performing or abandoned faba bean fields affected by Orobanche infestation. • Increased productivity and farm income through reduced crop losses and improved yields. • Reduced production risks and improved resilience of farming households.
Youth engaged in agricultural value chains	• Creation of business opportunities in seed multiplication, agro-input supply, and agricultural services. • Increased opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship in pulse value chains. • Development of technical skills related to improved seed systems and integrated crop management.
Farmers’ organizations and cooperatives in pulse-producing communities	• Increased collective production capacity and marketable surplus of faba bean. • Improved opportunities for aggregation, commercialization, and market linkages. • Stronger collaboration with research institutions, extension services, and input suppliers.

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Unintended impacts: 12
Mitigations: 12

Barriers: 12
Mitigations: 12

Climate adaptability: Highly adaptable

Helps farmers maintain faba bean production under increasing climate stress, as drought conditions can increase Orobanche pressure and threaten crop productivity.

Farmer climate change readiness: Moderate improvement

Strengthens resilience by providing farmers with an integrated management package, but adoption requires access to improved seed, inputs, and technical support.

Biodiversity: Positive impact on biodiversity

Supports crop diversity by maintaining faba bean cultivation and promoting crop rotations, but responsible herbicide use is needed to minimize impacts on non-target organisms.

Carbon footprint: A bit less carbon released

Improves soil nitrogen availability through legume-based rotations, reducing the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilizers; however, herbicide production and application contribute some emissions.

Environmental health: Moderately improves environmental health

Promotes sustainable Orobanche management through integrated practices and reduced chemical doses but requires proper Glyphosate handling to avoid environmental contamination.

Soil quality: Improves soil health and fertility

Maintains faba bean in crop rotations, improving soil fertility through nitrogen fixation and reducing soil degradation in affected areas.

Water use: A bit less water used

Does not directly reduce water requirements, but improved crop productivity and resilience help farmers obtain better returns from available water resources, especially under drought conditions.

Problem

Severe yield losses in faba bean production: Orobanche crenata infestation can cause up to complete crop failure in heavily affected fields, significantly reducing national pulse productivity.
Declining food and nutrition security: Reduced faba bean production threatens the availability of an affordable protein source for farming households and consumers.
Loss of smallholder farmer income: Low yields from infested fields reduce household earnings and increase economic vulnerability among pulse-producing communities.
Declining soil fertility from reduced legume cultivation: Reduced faba bean production disrupts cereal–legume rotations and decreases biological nitrogen fixation, affecting long-term soil productivity.
Abandonment of productive agricultural land: Severe Orobanche infestation can make fields unsuitable for faba bean cultivation, reducing land productivity and farmer livelihood options.
Persistent soil infestation: Orobanche seeds remain viable in soil for many years, creating recurring production challenges and increasing management difficulties.
Loss of faba bean production potential: Continued infestation contributes to the decline of the pulse sector and limits agricultural development opportunities in affected regions.
Limited awareness and technical capacity for Orobanche management: Farmers and extension agents often have insufficient knowledge of effective approaches to manage parasitic weeds.

Solution

Restoration of faba bean productivity and production: Provides an integrated management approach that significantly reduces Orobanche crenata infestation and enables farmers to recover yields from severely affected fields.
Strengthening food and nutrition as well as feed security: Increases availability of faba bean, an affordable protein source widely consumed by Ethiopian households, improving dietary diversity and household nutrition. Farmers get good value straw for their animal.
Improvement of soil fertility through sustainable rotations: Supports the continued integration of faba bean into cereal-based farming systems, enhancing nitrogen fixation and reducing dependence on external fertilizers. Inclusion of faba bean in crop rotation, reduces weed population in succeeding cereal crops.
Reduction of long-term Orobanche pressure: Combines resistant varieties, targeted herbicide use, hand weeding, and crop rotation practices to gradually reduce the parasite seed bank in infested soils.
Scalable extension approach: Provides a farmer-tested technology package that can be disseminated through extension services, Farmer Research Extension Groups (FREGs), demonstrations, and field days.
Support for agricultural policy goals: Contributes to national priorities related to food security, sustainable intensification, rural livelihoods, and export-oriented agricultural development.

Key points to design your project

The Integrated Orobanche Management technology should be implemented as an integrated faba bean production and Orobanche management intervention, combining the use of the Hashenge partially resistant faba bean variety, targeted Glyphosate application, and complementary cultural practices. The technology should be embedded within existing government agricultural development programs, pulse sector initiatives, extension systems, and seed delivery mechanisms to ensure efficient coordination, sustainability, and large-scale impact.

Project design should begin with the identification of priority intervention areas based on Orobanche prevalence, faba bean production importance, and existing institutional capacity. Government agencies, research institutions, and development partners should work together to define target regions, implementation modalities, and monitoring frameworks.

Successful deployment requires coordinated access to the main components of the technology package, including the partially resistant Hashenge faba bean variety, appropriate crop protection inputs, and complementary agronomic support. Implementation plans should ensure the availability of these resources through strengthened seed systems, input supply networks, and institutional partnerships.

The technology should be promoted as an integrated management package combining resistant varieties, targeted herbicide use, and complementary practices that contribute to long-term reduction of Orobanche pressure. Project activities should include awareness creation, technical capacity building, demonstration activities, and continuous support through extension and research networks.

Capacity building should involve agricultural extension services, research organizations, and relevant stakeholders to strengthen technical knowledge on integrated Orobanche management. Training programs should focus on technology dissemination, quality assurance, safe input management, monitoring of adoption, and effective scaling approaches.

Implementation should be supported through strong collaboration among key institutions, including the Amhara Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI), the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), ICARDA, government extension services, farmer organizations, and private-sector input providers. These partnerships are essential for ensuring access to research expertise, strengthening delivery systems, and facilitating sustainable adoption.

Government programs should establish monitoring mechanisms to assess technology uptake, productivity improvements, reduction of Orobanche pressure, livelihood impacts, and contributions to food security and sustainable agricultural development.

By integrating IOM into broader agricultural transformation strategies, decision-makers can restore productivity in Orobanche-affected areas, strengthen the pulse sector, improve food and nutrition security, enhance farmer resilience, and support more sustainable crop production systems. The technology provides a scalable solution to address a major biological constraint affecting faba bean production.

IP

Open source / open access

Scaling Readiness describes how complete a technology\’s development is and its ability to be scaled. It produces a score that measures a technology\’s readiness along two axes: the level of maturity of the idea itself, and the level to which the technology has been used so far.

Each axis goes from 0 to 9 where 9 is the “ready-to-scale” status. For each technology profile in the e-catalogs we have documented the scaling readiness status from evidence given by the technology providers. The e-catalogs only showcase technologies for which the scaling readiness score is at least 8 for maturity of the idea and 7 for the level of use.

The graph below represents visually the scaling readiness status for this technology, you can see the label of each level by hovering your mouse cursor on the number.

Scaling readiness score of this technology

Maturity of the idea 9 out of 9

Uncontrolled environment: validated

Level of use 9 out of 9

Common use by intended users, in the real world

Maturity of the idea										Level of use
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Positive impact 12

Social Group	Positive Impacts
Women smallholder faba bean farmers	• Improved access to resistant faba bean varieties and integrated crop management practices. • Increased household food and nutrition security through higher availability of a protein-rich crop. • Greater participation in crop production decisions and potential income generation from improved yields.
Resource-poor smallholder farmers in Orobanche-affected areas	• Recovery of previously low-performing or abandoned faba bean fields affected by Orobanche infestation. • Increased productivity and farm income through reduced crop losses and improved yields. • Reduced production risks and improved resilience of farming households.
Youth engaged in agricultural value chains	• Creation of business opportunities in seed multiplication, agro-input supply, and agricultural services. • Increased opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship in pulse value chains. • Development of technical skills related to improved seed systems and integrated crop management.
Farmers’ organizations and cooperatives in pulse-producing communities	• Increased collective production capacity and marketable surplus of faba bean. • Improved opportunities for aggregation, commercialization, and market linkages. • Stronger collaboration with research institutions, extension services, and input suppliers.

Unintended impact 12

Social Group	Potential Unintended Impacts	Mitigation Measures
Women smallholder faba bean farmers	Increased labour burden due to additional management practices • Hand weeding and integrated management require additional labour inputs. • Women may carry additional farm responsibilities without additional support. • Limited access to labour-saving tools may reduce benefits.	• Promote labour-sharing mechanisms through farmer groups. • Ensure women farmers are included in training and extension support. • Encourage access to appropriate tools and community labour arrangements.
Resource-poor smallholder farmers in Orobanche-affected areas	Dependence on external inputs and services • Farmers may become dependent on continuous access to resistant seed and herbicides. • Input price increases could affect affordability. • Poor access to credit may limit adoption.	• Strengthen local seed multiplication and input supply systems. • Promote farmer organizations for collective input purchasing. • Facilitate access to financial services and agricultural support programs.
Youth engaged in agricultural value chains	Unequal access to emerging business opportunities • Youth may lack capital to enter seed or input businesses. • Limited technical knowledge may restrict participation. • Benefits may be concentrated among established businesses.	• Provide entrepreneurship training and technical capacity building. • Facilitate youth access to financing and business support programs. • Include youth-focused components in scaling initiatives.
Farmers’ organizations and cooperatives	Potential exclusion of smaller or less-connected farmers • Better-organized farmers may capture more benefits. • Vulnerable households may have limited participation. • Unequal access to markets may create disparities.	• Establish inclusive membership and participation mechanisms. • Prioritize vulnerable farmers in technology dissemination. • Strengthen transparent benefit-sharing and market arrangements.

Barriers 12

Social Group	Adoption Barriers	Mitigation Measures
Women smallholder faba bean farmers	Limited access to resources and information • Women may have less access to improved seed, inputs, and extension services. • Training opportunities may not always reach women farmers. • Limited decision-making power may affect technology uptake.	• Organize women-focused training and demonstration activities. • Ensure women’s inclusion in farmer groups and extension programs. • Promote household-level awareness of women’s role in technology adoption.
Resource-poor smallholder farmers in Orobanche-affected areas	High initial adoption constraints • Limited ability to purchase seed and herbicides. • Lack of knowledge on correct application methods. • Risk aversion due to previous production failures.	• Provide demonstration plots showing economic benefits. • Support access to inputs through cooperatives and extension systems. • Provide training on integrated management practices and safe herbicide use.
Youth engaged in agricultural value chains	Limited investment capacity and technical experience • Lack of startup capital for seed or input businesses. • Limited knowledge of agricultural markets. • Difficulty accessing institutional support.	• Link youth with agribusiness development programs. • Provide technical and business management training. • Facilitate partnerships with seed companies and input suppliers.
Farmers’ organizations and cooperatives	Weak organizational capacity and market linkages • Limited capacity for collective input procurement and marketing. • Weak coordination with research and extension systems. • Limited storage and commercialization infrastructure.	• Strengthen cooperative management and business skills. • Build partnerships with research institutions and private-sector actors. • Support market access, aggregation, and value chain development.

Countries with a green colour: Tested & adopted
Countries with a bright green colour: Adopted
Countries with a yellow colour: Tested
Countries with a blue colour: Testing ongoing

Countries where the technology is being tested or has been tested and adopted
Country	Testing ongoing	Tested	Adopted
Ethiopia	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted

This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones. Any zones shown in white are not suitable for this technology.

Agro-ecological zones where this technology can be used
AEZ	Subtropic - warm	Subtropic - cool	Tropic - warm	Tropic - cool
Arid	–	–	–	–
Semiarid	–		–	–
Subhumid	–	–	–	–
Humid	–	–	–	–

Source: HarvestChoice/IFPRI 2009

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are applicable to this technology.

Goal 1: no poverty

Increases faba bean productivity and profitability, helping smallholder farmers recover income from Orobanche-affected fields and improve livelihood resilience.

Goal 12: responsible production and consumption

Promotes efficient production through integrated pest management, combining resistant varieties, targeted herbicide use, and cultural practices.

Goal 17: partnerships for the goals

Demonstrates successful collaboration among ICARDA, EIAR, ARARI, extension services, and farmers for technology development and scaling.

Goal 2: zero hunger

Restores production of faba bean, an important source of affordable protein, improving household food security and dietary quality.

Establish the crop: Plant the Hashenge faba bean variety, which is partially resistant to Orobanche crenata, using the recommended agronomic practices. Sow at a seed rate of 150 kg/ha with 40 cm row spacing and 20 cm between plants, preferably during the recommended planting period. Apply 121 kg/ha of NPS fertilizer at planting to promote healthy crop establishment.
Apply Glyphosate at the correct stage: Apply Glyphosate at a sublethal rate of 0.30 L/ha (300 ml/ha) diluted in 300 L of water/ha. Make two foliar applications: the first at the early flowering stage of the faba bean crop and the second 15 days later. Correct timing is essential to suppress Orobanche without damaging the crop.
Follow safe application practices: Wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), including gloves, protective clothing, boots, and eye protection. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for handling and application, avoid contaminating water sources, and wash all equipment and protective gear thoroughly after spraying.
Integrate complementary management practices: Combine chemical control with cultural practices for long-term management. Regularly inspect fields and remove any emerging Orobanche plants before they flower and set seed, then safely destroy them. Rotate faba bean with non-host crops such as cereals, fenugreek, or cowpea for 4–5 years to gradually reduce the Orobanche seed bank and improve the long-term effectiveness of the technology.

Downloads

Orobanche Weed Management Brochure-Ethiopia.pdf (PDF, 468.73 KB)
Orobanche -faba bean-Ethiopia.pdf (PDF, 400.79 KB)

Last updated on Jul 24, 2026

International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)
Seid Ahmed Kemal

Technology from

PRMS

Commodities

Faba bean

Sustainable Development Goals Details ›

public.components.sdgs.motre

Subcategory

Weed resistance

Value chain step

Production

Tested/adopted in Details ›

Countries with a green colour: Tested & adopted
Countries with a bright green colour: Adopted
Countries with a yellow colour: Tested
Countries with a blue colour: Testing ongoing

Where it can be used Details ›

This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones.

Target groups

Breeders Farmers Seed companies Researcher center Advisory and Extension Services

Integrated Orobanche Management on Faba bean: Resistant Faba Bean and Low-Dose Herbicide Package

Positive impacts: 12

Problem

Solution

Key points to design your project

IP

Scaling readiness score of this technology

Maturity of the idea 9 out of 9

Level of use 9 out of 9

Positive impact 12

Unintended impact 12

Barriers 12

Goal 1: no poverty

Goal 12: responsible production and consumption

Goal 17: partnerships for the goals

Goal 2: zero hunger

Downloads

Technology from

Commodities

Sustainable Development Goals Details ›

Category

Subcategory

Value chain step

Tested/adopted in Details ›

Where it can be used Details ›

Target groups

TAAT

Integrated Orobanche Management on Faba bean: Resistant Faba Bean and Low-Dose Herbicide Package

Inclusion assessment 12 12 12

Positive impacts: 12

Climate impact 7

Problem

Solution

Key points to design your project

IP

Scaling readiness

Scaling readiness score of this technology

Maturity of the idea 9 out of 9

Level of use 9 out of 9

Inclusion assessment

Positive impact 12

Unintended impact 12

Barriers 12

Tested/adopted in

Where it can be used

Sustainable Development Goals

Goal 1: no poverty

Goal 12: responsible production and consumption

Goal 17: partnerships for the goals

Goal 2: zero hunger

How to use

Downloads

Downloads

Technology from

Commodities

Sustainable Development Goals Details ›

Category

Subcategory

Value chain step

Tested/adopted in Details ›

Where it can be used Details ›

Target groups