[Genetic improvement of grain legumes of importance to Latin American diet and the soy bean].
Common beans and soybeans can be considered as the most important food legumes in the Latin American nutritional context, each of them presenting specific problems. The production of common beans has not increased in the last decade, and insects and diseases attacks are menacing it. On the other hand, soybeans have shown a tremendous increase in production, becoming rapidly an important export cash crop. However, its use in human consumption is quite restricted, in spite of the efforts of some countries in inducing their acceptance. As far as nutritive value is concerned, a high variability for protein and methionine contents have been evidenced, and breeding programs could use this factor advantageously. In the case of soybeans, the use of germ plasm with colored seeds appears to be a good alternative, due to the preference for color by the consumers. Considering the agricultural production policies of some of our countries, there is a need to establish a proper balance between the cash and energetic crops, and the staple food crops, in order to avoid an aggravation of the nutritional problems in this Continent.