Bean Yield Per Acre: The BEST Facts, Challenges, And Opportunities

Bean yield per acre:

Have you ever thought of growing beans?

…so that you can get EXTRA INCOME to supplement your day job?

Have you ever tried growing other crops like maize, potatoes, tomatoes, watermelon, sugarcane, wheat etc.?

…only to be disappointed by the weather, thieves or the farmhand whom you trusted?

If you have answered YES, to any of the questions, you are in good company.

In this post, I explain All the EXCITING details about:

1. Bean yield per acre,
2. Cost of bean production per acre,
3. The mistakes you must avoid to get the HUGE bean yields your land is capable of giving,
4. And much more!

Ready?

Continue reading to kick start your bean growing journey.

From The Desk of Haron Mogeni,

Professional Horticulturist,

Misambi Ekerenyo road,

Nyamira,

Kenya.

Dear Fellow farmer,

In my lifetime, I’ve tried growing many crops.

Maize, tomatoes, watermelon, millet, capsicum… the list goes on…

…only to be bitterly disappointed.

I have lost ALL (or a huge portion of it) of my harvests to…

• thieves,
• pests,
• vagaries of weather,
• and even to the farmhand whom I trusted.

And for a long time, I Stopped Farming Completely.

But the break did not kill my farming dream.

It was, and has ALWAYS been very alive.

For I always knew, one day…

“I will grow something that will turnaround my fortunes.”

Whenever I had time, I searched for ONE CROP that would be…

• Easy to grow,
• Won’t make me run up and down the shamba,
• Difficult to steal,
• Easy to sell,
• And cost friendly.

Therefore, if this experience describes your farming journey, you’ve come to…

 “The ultimate guide for bean farming in Kenya!”

Growing Beans Happens to Fit All the Requirements Above.

After doing some extensive research, (and asking my woman which bean variety she, and Kenyans like), I finally settled on growing yellow beans.

For best yield results, I recommend growing Amana yellow beans–1 kilo goes for Ksh 221, and you need 30 kilos/acre. <<< follow link for details on how you can buy the beans.

“Why grow yellow beans?”

You may ask.

Here is why…

1. The selling price of yellow beans is 10 -20% higher than other bean varieties.

Varieties like nyayo, mwitemania, rose-coco, saitoti etc. sell for much less.

This however, does not mean the varieties above are inferior.

There are people who love them. For example if you are targeting to sell to boarding schools, Nyayo beans is the best.

For the best planting seed, I recommend that you buy the nyayo beans online <<< here.

2. People love yellow beans. The beans are gentle to the stomach. They don’t cause flatulence or acidity like other bean varieties.
3. The market demand good. Yellow beans outsell other bean varieties in Kenya.

Because of those reasons, I fell in love with yellow beans.

I saw myself making BIG money.

The problems of school fees, college tuition, and car maintenance would be over.”

I happily thought.

So I started Planning. Calculating. Making arrangements on how to grow the beans.

But there was a problem.

I didn’t know how yield per acre of yellow beans to expect.

The lack of that info was like, “Walking on a potholed street during a dark moonless night having no torch.”

Bean Yield Per Acre 

Since I had no clue of the kilos I can harvest per acre, of yellow beans, I had find out for myself.

That was really sad…

considering it wasn’t my first time to grow beans.

I CLEARLY remember when I was a teenager.

My parents used to grow beans (though not yellow beans).

I could help dad and mum to plant, weed, and harvest the beans.

Thus had EVERY opportunity to have a FIRSTHAND experience in growing beans.

Unfortunately, I a hard-headed boy.

The adolescence virus made me hate farming!

In my teens, not once did I have an interest in knowing how many kilos of beans dad harvested from an acre.

Now, the payback time had come.

I was in dire need of that info—real life info as opposed to academic knowledge.

My ‘hard head’ was JUSTLY being rewarded.

What an awful lesson I missed!

If only I knew the knowledge on bean farming would be vital years down the lane—I would have been a keen observer.

My mind would absorb everything like a dry sponge.

However, that now is in the past.

I had to rely on…

Online Sources Say You Can Get  900 Kilos  of Bean Yield Per Acre

(continue reading to know how many kilos I harvested in an acre)

Because I wasn’t keen, on the farming lessons dad taught me, I had to rely on research from THIRD PARTIES.

Quickly, like all millennials, I did some online research.

Doctor Google fortunately came to my rescue.

He SPAT A LONG LIST of bean farming articles.

Most of them YAPPED that…

“One acre is capable of giving, 10 bags of 90 kilos each of beans.”

On paper, that bean yield looked VERY good.

It meant that I would fetch, “a gross sale of KES 120,000/=”

And if I was to use a MAXIMUM of KES 50,000 on expenses, I would be left with KES 70,000 per acre!

That was simply incredible.

Imagine a 120% return on investment—all in a space of 3 months.

Even an IPO of the best company can’t beat such a return.

That was really enticing!

“Will I be able to get similar if I grow the beans?”

For a long time, I thought about it.

During my entire teenage life, (when my dad was farming beans) I hadn’t seen him reap such huge bean yields per acre—yet he was a WONDERFUL and EXPERIENCED farmer.

My past experience therefore, made me doubt the online claims.

It seemed too good to be true!

But there was only ONE way to find out…

“Growing the beans myself.”

How It All Started: My REAL LIFE Experience Growing Yellow Beans at Nyamusi Division, Nyamira County.

Encouraged by the potential big harvests per acre, (as claimed by online sources) I set out to grow yellow beans.

I have written about part of the experience (with photos) on this link.

How I Used Bean Herbicides to Reduce Weeding Time from 2 Days to 2 Hours.

For now, let us continue with what brought you here.

Here is what I did:

1. I leased land,
2. Ploughed it,
3. and did all that relates to bean farming.

When that was all over, I harvested 400 kilos of yellow beans from one acre.

Though this bean yield per acre was way below my target (of 1000 kilos)…

… the yield was still satisfactory.

From my estimates, this yield wasn’t bad at all…

… even though it fell below my target.

Why?

1. I recovered ALL my CASH,
2. I got a profit (details shown in a section below)
3. I learnt an invaluable practical lessons on bean farming.

My honest believe is:

“Next time I grow dry beans; my harvest will EXCEED 900 kilos per acre.”

Continue reading below to know:

• The mistakes I made, so that you don’t make them too,
• The amount of seed I used per acre, (which I think reduced expected yields)
• The costs I incurred for the acre,
• The herbicides I used to reduce weeding time by 80%,
• And much more!

Two Mistakes Made Me Get 4 bags Instead of 10 Bags Per Acre

1. Late planting.

This I believe was the SINGLE biggest mistake.

In my own estimation, late planting reduced my bean yield by +30%.

Here’s how.

When it got to planting time, I got VERY busy.

I had to sort some pressing issues.

I had to sort one problem, only for another to pop up.

That really drained time and energy from me.

By the time I was through with those issues, 3 weeks had already passed.

Dearly, the 3- week delay cost me.

Because during pod formation, there was a two-week HOT sunny period.

In this period the intense sun dried up ALL the young pods that were forming.

What was left were those that were formed earlier.

I reasoned therefore, If I had planted a little early, the hot sunny weather would have little impact on yields.

2. Low bean seed rate per acre.

To MAXIMIZE the bean production, you require to plant 30 kilos of beans seed for 1 acre.

I know this seed requirement seems way TOO high.

However, I am talking from experience.

Personally, I used 18 kilos for the acre of beans.

From my OBSERVATION, I should have used 30 instead of 18 kilos.

After seed germination, the lower seed rate resulted in NUMEROUS, empty, wide spaces between bean plants.

The empty space was a real waste.

If the beans were closely spaced, maybe, I would have had higher yields per acre.

A Must Know: The Cost of Planting Beans Per Acre…

How to Increase the Yield of Beans Per Acre

1. Avoid the mistakes mentioned in the post above.

i.e. ensure that you plant early, and use the right amount of seed per acre

2. Spray hormones to stimulate the production of more flowers during the flowering stage.
3. Spray foliar feeds that contain boron, and potassium. Beans need these elements in large amounts during flowering and pod formation.
4. Use the right fertilizers in the right amounts.
5. Use lots of farmyard manure to improve the soil fertility and organic matter.

What are your thoughts on Bean Yield Per Acre?

Share them in the comments section below!