"Legumes play an important role in Malawi by providing N inputs through biological nitrogen fixation, by providing a high-quality source of nutrients in otherwise deficient diets, and by providing a high-value crop for marketing locally and for export to other countries. However, despite the agronomic and socio-economic prominence, legumes and especially common beans production continue to face a myriad of challenges, important ones being lower yields due to poor soil fertility, drought, and infestation by pests and diseases. In spite of these, very little effort is currently devoted to addressing these constraints because of lack of training, infrastructure, and operational support. Despite that legume can fix a reasonable amount of N, this biological phenomenon is highly limited under P-deficient soils and drought conditions, which are common edaphic and climatic problems in Malawi. Unlike other farming systems, in Malawi, no inorganic fertilizers are supplemented in legumes, hence can only access P from residual fertility when grown in association or rotation with cereal crops such as maize. Hence, developing nutrient efficient and drought tolerant common bean genotypes is among the top breeding objectives in developing countries such as Malawi. The overarching objective of this research is to improve food and nutrition security, livelihoods of smallholder farmers and agroecosystem sustainability in Rumphi, Mzimba, Kasungu, Dowa, and Mchinji districts of Malawi through increased productivity of common beans in stressful environments. This pursuit is noble, innovative and sustainable, as it tackles an element of improving growth in stressful environments that is often neglected in many breeding programs for common beans. Often, breeding programs in common beans target farmer and consumer traits such as seed size, seed color and cooking time, with less regard to resilience under adverse environments. In order to ensure sustainability, this study shall employ a participatory variety selection (PVS) approach, which ensures that all farmer and consumer needs are incorporated while improving their agronomic performance. The research project is a relevant action for pursuit of both FoodMa objectives and national goals and priorities. It particularly approaches the existing problem in a sustainable food systems approach, that addresses social, economic and environmental aspects. The development of nutrient efficient and disease resistant varieties may affect the productivity of other components of the agroecosystem, and by affecting soil quality could change the long-term productivity of the agroecosystem. These processes need to be understood so that deployment of efficient genotypes benefits the overall production system without negative consequences. We anticipate that most of these effects will be positive. Greater production of legumes would increase biological nitrogen fixation, thereby enhancing soil fertility and the growth of non-leguminous crops grown as intercrops or rotations. Greater biomass production should result in improved soil fertility in the medium to long term, since organic matter is critically important for water retention, nutrient retention, and root growth, especially in weathered tropical soils. Greater production of legume biomass would also provide more crop residues for animal fodder. The use of more nutrient efficient crops would also provide more income and incentive for the application of fertility inputs by farm households. These benefits shall support the realization of national goals, as outlined in both Malawi's Growth and Development Strategy III (MGDS) as well as the newly enacted Malawi’s Vision 2063, in addressing food and nutritional insecurity, environmental sustainability and alleviating poverty. In order to achieve these, the project has outlined a number activities, chief being (1) Investigation of constraints to adoption of new bean technologies, and household and intra-household impacts of adoption on income and nutrition, (2) participatory germplasm evaluation and selection where fifty Common Beans lines from Malawi Mini Collection will be sourced from Gene bank at Chitedze and evaluated on-farm for P and N use efficiency as well as drought, pest and disease resistance and (3) Multiplication of selected nutrient-efficient and disease resistant germplasm. The primary output from the project will be the release of nutrient efficient common bean genotypes, and an understanding of constraints to adoption of new bean technologies which shall inform planning, breeding and policy making at a national level. The target beneficiaries for the project are resource poor farmers whose primary income source is common bean production, in FoodMa target sites; Kasungu, Lilongwe and Mzimba. Social inclusiveness shall be strictly considered, ensuring that 5 % of the beneficiaries are people with disabilities, 40 % are women, and at least 20 % are young people. In order to build young researchers' capacity, the project shall engage 3 undergraduate and postgraduate students. This engagement shall be through provision of funding towards their research projects. The research to be funded shall have to relate to nutrient use studies in common beans, or studies on growth and productivity of common beans under adverse environmental conditions."