Over 80% of farmers in Malawi grow beans, alongside other cash crops such as maize and cassava. Beans are eaten as immature ponds or as ripe beans and they are eaten as a compartment to maize, the main staple food in Malawi.

By the end of this lesson, the farmer should be able to understand:

• Good management practices for bean production
• How to control pests and diseases
• Methods to improving bean productivity
• Acquire knowledge on post-harvest handling of beans

• Bean crop is a warm season crop with optimum growing temperature of 15⁰C - 25⁰C.

• Sandy loam soil with good drainage is ideal for beans. It should have pH range of 5.3 – 6.3. Poor drainage soils cause root rotting diseases.

• Rainfall amounting between 300 – 600mm per annum. Some small amount of rain is required during flowering and pod setting stages. However, there should be dry weather conditions during harvesting, drying and threshing.

The commonly cultivated varieties in Malawi include the following

Dwarf (Bush or determinate)

• Nasaka – it is kidney shaped with tan seed coat-colour
• Bwenzilawana- is round shaped and yellow seed-coat colour
• Kamtsilo – blue seed coat and kidney shaped
• Saperekedwa / sapatsika – red seed-coat and kidney shaped 

Climbing (Tall or indeterminate)

• Kanzama – red seed-coat colour and round shaped
• Namajengo – red seed coat colour and kidney shaped

Semi-dwarf

• Maluwa – round shaped with red and white patches
• Nagaga- Khaki colour and kidney shaped
• Nanyati- khakhi brown and kidney shaped