Yellow Beans Farming From Seed To Harvest

     Written by Peter Otieno

         

As a result of the increasing dry beans market in Kenya, many farmers are now growing different varieties, yellow beans farming being one of them, to meet consumer demand and boost their income.

Yellow beans has a yellowish greenish appearance and thrives well in regions of warm climate with enough rainfall like in Eastern, Rift valley and Western parts of Kenya. It is mainly grown as a food crop.

It takes 60 to 70 days to mature with prices going for Kenya Shillings 180 per Kg and this can change during planting and dry seasons. This guide gives you the steps you need to grow yellow beans from seed to harvest.

1. Preparation of Land and Buying Seeds

First, plough your land a month earlier before planting season, either by using a tractor, oxen or farm workers.

Second, get quality yellow bean seeds from a trusted grocery shop or a certified Agro vet outlet.

Note: 

a) The method of ploughing will depend on your preference and size of your farm, be it an acre, two acres or a small garden.

b) Purchase your seeds earlier as their prices tend to increase when demand rises during planting season.

2. Planting Procedure

Clear the farm land in case of tall grass.

Dig holes with a spacing of 5cm deep, 45cm apart between holes and 60cm apart between rows.

Add organic manure ( one palm full for a good start) in the holes, plant four to five seeds, then cover with soil. If the ground is dry water the holes.

Organic or composite manure enables root development and shooting of bean seedling above the soil. It further provides essential nutrients up to harvest of yellow beans.

3. Weeding of Farm

Weeding is done twice. At 3 weeks when bean seedlings have developed more than five leaves and at 6 weeks before flowering begins.

You can weed either manually or mulch your plants with dried grass and plant materials. It is more suitable to mulch when bean plants are at five leaf stage after sowing, for reasons such as

a) At five leaf stage, not many weeds have grown and by applying mulch the development of weeds is suppressed. In addition, yellow bean plants will begin to retain water for growth in case of water inadequacy.

b) Farm remains weed free up to 4 weeks and at this time yellow bean plants will have began growing bushy.

c) You can do your weeding once which reduces labor costs.

4. Top Dressing 

Add more organic mature for top dressing immediately after second weeding.  

This will enhance vigorous growth and increased photosynthesis. Further more it will facilitate easy and continuous uptake of water from the soil.

If you cannot make compost or get organic manure at your farm or garden, an option would be sourcing from farmers or checking if they are available in agrovet shops.

5. Pests and Diseases 

Yellow beans are affected by pests like cutworms, aphids, bean fly and diseases such as powdery mildew, leaf rust, bean mosaic virus.

As a farmer you have to conduct a routine check up on your crops to identify presence of pests and diseases.

The preventive measures you can take are manual uprooting of weeds when plants are at flowering stage, growing of crops that repel pests such as onions and dhania near yellow bean plants and mulching which minimizes growth of weeds.

6. Harvesting

Yellow beans take two and a half months to be harvested. At maturity stage, you will notice the pods and leaves dry and change color from green to brown or yellow. 

After the plants have all dried, do harvest by uprooting from the ground, followed by threshing to remove husks and pods then winnowing to separate chaff and get actual yellow beans.

Lastly, you can sell to customers or store as beans have a longer shelf life.

Benefits of Yellow Beans

a) As legumes, yellow beans provide a nutrient rich soil by fixing nitrogen in the soil.

b) Yellow beans are tasty, they do not cause stomach bloat and are a good source of protein thus an alternative for meat.

c) The dried husks, stems and pods are a great source of manure hence they should not be burnt instead be deposited on the farm to decompose.

d) Yellow beans can be used to make chicken feeds by mixing with components like maize, wheat bran and fishmeal.

e) They are rich in fiber which help lower cholesterol levels thereby maintaining a proper heart function.

Conclusion

Yellow beans farming is continuing to gain popularity in Kenya as more farmers are starting to grow the bean seeds.

Yellow beans outshines its competitor varieties like Rosecoco, Black beans, Wairimu, Mwitemania, Mwezi moja because it has a more sweet taste and fetches higher prices in the market.

Its returns are great and with proper farm management practices a farmer can produce 12 bags of 90Kg per acre.

Farmers should not only focus on subsistence farming of beans but go for commercial production too.