Kenya: Amiran unveils high-yielding new french bean variety
This, according to Everlyn Musyoka, a commercial manager at Amiran, will eliminate the tedious harvesting schedules; they are normally harvested in stages. This consequently leads to improved yields and lower costs of production compared to conventional bean varieties in the market.
She notes that the Amiran's mechanically harvested varieties are high yielding. They can be harvested once using machines or the existing labour force, making it easier for growers to plan and project their yields with more accuracy.
"The new seed varieties in the mechanical harvesting category will help in reducing the high costs of the intensive labour needed for harvesting the crop which normally takes an average of four harvests," she says.
Musyoka says the introduction of these new varieties of beans is part of a wider and sustained long term demand trends by both growers and consumers as vegetable consumption worldwide increases in volume and value.
Currently, vegetable breeders are engaged in ensuring that the sector gets the best seed varieties and they are keenly breeding for all links in the vegetable supply chain. They are looking into several issues like increased yields, disease and pest resistance, shipping and keeping quality, product uniformity, taste, nutritional and health values delivered.
Amiran Kenya, she said, is at the forefront in ensuring that these values are delivered to clients in their product portfolio as a way of ensuring that growers remain valued and relevant globally in the horticulture sector.
The new French bean varieties are currently under multiple location trials and expected to be commercialised by the end of the year. The varieties mature within 45 days to 60 days depending on the location.
Unlike the other French beans varieties, these new varieties present uniform flowering, pod growth and maturity. This enables these varieties to be ideal for mechanical or single harvesting
"Equally it has a very good shipping ability and with the aid of the active shelf life extend bags, another innovation from Amiran, you are assured of 30 days shelf life," says Musyoka.
The other conventional beans do not mature uniformly prompting farmers to harvest them in various stages, a trait that Musyoka notes reduces yield potential and increases the cost of both labour and a prolonged use of pesticide sprays.
"If the beans are not maturing uniformly then the farmer will be forced to pay more for labour costs . In addition, during harvesting, the plant is weakened with sustained flower abortion, a fact that contributes to reduced expected yields. In case after the first round of harvesting a farmer realises some disease and pests incidences such as bean rust, then he or she is forced to spray the crops to ensure that he can continue harvesting healthy pods. In the process, the chemical usage goes up hence contributing to higher costs of production as well as limiting the farmers considering the strict rules applied when it comes to meeting the maximum residue levels," she explains.
Other vegetable crop varieties that are also receiving attention from breeders to improve quality include tomatoes, water melons and onions.
"Much has been done to breed tomatoes with high content of lycopene. Studies indicate that people who have diets rich in tomatoes, which contain lycopene, appear to have a lower risk of certain types of cancer, especially cancers of the prostate, lung, and stomach. Water melons are being developed to increase firmness, introduce different colours and smaller sizes of about two kilograms famously known as the minis which is said to be ideal for the European markets as the family sizes shrink," she concludes.
Source: allafrica.com
