By Felix Ochieng Akech

Emmanuel Omondi doubled his French bean earnings in 2025 to Sh210,000 per acre, after all costs, by lifting calcium and boran, and changing his pest control and plant spacing.

Before his changes, only five to six crates were being accepted for export out of every 10 he delivered from his one acre farm in Kisumu County.

The rest were downgraded for curved pods, uneven thickness and poor shelf life, forcing him to sell to local brokers at nearly half the export price.

“I was harvesting about 4.5 tonnes per acre, but only around 60% met export grade,” said Emmanuel. “Rejected beans were going for as low as Sh40 per kilo instead of Sh110, killing my earnings.”

In 2023, an entire consignment was rejected after softening during transit. “I lost over Sh38,000 in one week,” he said. “That’s when I stopped blaming buyers and realised something on my farm was missing.”

Laboratory tests showed the calcium levels were low on his farm, and his first step was to fertilise differently. He had been relying mainly on NPK and CAN. But in 2024 he began adding calcium nitrate through irrigation from the second week after the seedlings began appearing, and boron as a foliar spray at early flowering at a 0.2% concentration.

“Immediately, pod firmness improved,” he said. “The beans started snapping clean instead of bending.”

He also changed his irrigation from heavy watering every three days, which had encouraged fast growth but produced hollow, soft pods, to daily drip irrigation, running the system for 25 to 30 minutes every morning.

“That change stabilised the calcium uptake,” he said. “Pods became thicker, straighter and lasted longer after harvest.”

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He also improved his crop’s moisture content by harvesting only in the early morning, between 6:30am and 9:30am. “Beans harvested in heat lose weight fast,” he said. “After changing harvest time, post-harvest weight loss dropped by almost 20%.”

Against thrips, which had been causing a lot of damage to the appearance of his beans, he switched from calendar spraying to scouting twice a week during flowering and rotating active ingredients, including spinosad, abamectin and cyantraniliprole.

“Thrips damage dropped by more than 60%, and pod scarring almost disappeared,” he said.

He also reduced plant density, widening spacing from 20 cm to 30 cm between plants. The total yield remained much the same, despite having fewer plants, and the percentage of export-grade beans increased because the airflow was improved and he suffered from less rust.

From his changed spacing, fertilisation, irrigation, and pest control, he increased the percentage of his crop that was export- grade to 85% to 90%, and lifted his yields to 4.8 tonnes per acre, and net profits from about Sh120,000 to Sh210,000 per acre.

“I didn’t expand land,” he said. “I fixed losses.”

Many French bean farmers focus too much on nitrogen and volume while ignoring micronutrients, irrigation timing and harvest discipline, he said.

“Beans don’t fail because of low yield,” he said. “They fail because of soft pods, curvature and short shelf life, which can all be prevented.”

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