This topic is a unique attempt to simultaneously tackle theoretical and practical aspects in drought phenotyping, through both crop-specific and cross-cutting approaches. It is designed for – and will be of use to – practitioners and postgraduate students in plant science, who are grappling with the challenging task of evaluating germplasm performance under different water regimes. In Part I, different methodologies are presented for accurately characterising environmental conditions, implementing trials, and capturing and analysing the information this generates, regardless of the crop. Part II presents the state-of-art in research on adaptation to drought, and recommends specific protocols to measure different traits in major food crops (focusing on particular cereals, legumes and clonal crops). The topic is part of the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme’s efforts to disseminate crop research information, tools and protocols, for improving characterisation of environments and phenotyping conditions. The goal is to enhance expertise in testing locations, and to stimulate the development and use of traits related to drought tolerance, as well as innovative protocols for crop characterisation and breeding.

No other disjunct pieces of land present such striking similarities as the widely sepa 1 rated regions with a mediterranean type of climate, that is, the territories fringing the Mediterranean Sea, California, Central Chile and the southernmost strips of South Mrica and Australia. Similarities are not confined to climatic trends, but are also reflected in the physiognomy ofthe vegetation, in land use patterns and frequently in the general appearance of the landscape. The very close similarities in agricultural practices and sometimes also in rural settlements are dependent on the climatic and edaphic analogies, as well as on a certain commonality in qdtural history. This is certainly true for the Mediterranean Sea basin which in many ways represents a sort of ecological-cultural unit; this is also valid for CaUfornia and Chile, which were both settled by Spaniards and which showed periods of vigorous commercial and cultural interchanges as during the California gold rush. One other general feature is the massive interchange of cultivated and weed species of plants that has occurred between the five areas of the world that have a mediterranean-type climate, with the Mediterranean basin region itself as a major source. In spite of their limited territorial extension, probably no other parts of the world have played a more fundamental role in the history of mankind. Phoenician, Etruscan, Hellenic, Jewish, Roman, Christian andArab civilizations, among others,haveshapedmanyofman's present attitudes, including his position and perception vis-a-vis nature.

The first section reviews trends of bean production and constraints in Latin America and Africa. The second section covers fungal diseases. The third section, bacterial diseases. The fourth section, viral and mycoplasma diseases. The fifth section, insect pests. The last section, other bean production constraints, that is, nutritional disorders, nematodes, seed pathology, and additional problems.