Rank: Member Joined: 4/2/2011 Posts: 629 Location: Nai
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bwenyenye wrote:Mercie wrote:accelriskconsult wrote:Bwenyenye, My partners and I have a pilot project - 10 acres under cultivation in Nakuru - maize and beans. 5 acres planted with Nyayo and 5 planted with Wairimu. I can report to you that Nyayo is doing much much better than Wairimu. I have never planted any other bean varieties so I cannot comment on that. About the source of seeds, our man on the ground (MOG) sourced them from a seed shop in Nakuru and the cost of seeds was approx 10k. The MOG who has more experience on such matters advises that on average, each acre will produce between 1200 and 1500 kg. The last time I checked, beans were retailing for Sh 6,800 per 90 kg bag. Other costs include ploughing 2k per acre , weeding 2k per acre (allocate these 50:50 with the maize) and harvesting costs which I have not yet quantified. Happy planting! Accelriskconsult: How did your pilot project go? Did you produce as many kilos of beans as expected? Where did you find the market? Is there anyone with ideas about where to market beans? Thanks! Just store them well and wait for January. When the Boarding schools open, you will be king. if you can hold, wait even till March just before the next crop is harvested and you will be tops. Bwenyenye, thanks for the advice. I was wondering what to do with the maize as the current prices are discouraging. Mercie, the beans came a cropper (pun intended)! A number of factors including drought when the bean sprouts were forming and a whitish worm that eats the stalks affected the crop. The maize crop did not perform too badly and we are likely to realise a modest return of around 10% (despite finding out later that the caretaker never procured seeds but planted from his own harvest the previous year). I am planning to be more proactive next season but will stay out of bean planting.
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