Tylosema esculentum (marama bean) is an underutilized perennial legume crop native to the Kalahari Desert and neighboring sandy regions of Namibia and Botswana and northern South Africa. The overall aim of the project is to cultivate marama bean and to carry out selective breeding for marama bean. The long term impact of these objectives will be to improve and diversify livelihoods for beneficiaries, the people in Omaheke through sale of marama seeds. Marama seeds were collected and some were treated with gamma ray irradiation in order to induce mutations. The mutant marama seeds will be selected for good or desirable mutations such as early ripening or many numbers of seed per pod, just as examples.