Kidney Bean Farming – Rajma Farming Methods And Requirements

Indian farmers practice Rajma farming in a wide area. The other names of Rajma are Kidney bean, chilli bean, etc. Chilli bean name is taken due to its dark red colour, and it looks as Kidney, so it named as a Kidney bean. Rajma is an excellent source of molybdenum as well as protein. In addition, it has an excellent source of cholesterol-lowering fibres. The north Indian people like it, and it is a famous cuisine for them. Farmers from Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka are the primary producers of Rajma. 

How to Do Rajma Farming?

To cultivate the Rajma, just read the following requirements and conditions. With these requirements, you can know everything about this farming. So, let’s know about them.

Climate Requirements

For the cultivation of Rajma, the temperature must be between 15 to 25°C. You can grow more if you cultivate the Rajma at a given temperature. You have to sow the seeds when the temperature is between 22 to 25°C so that the crop can show maximum output. For good yield, the rainfall must be 60 to 150mm. You should consider the temperature between 28 to 30°C to harvest the crop. 

Soil Requirements 

From light sandy to heavy clay soils are suitable for Rajma farming. And it can grow with its maximum output capacity in the well-drained loamy soil. However, you should avoid its cultivation in saline soils as it is susceptible to it. You can see the best result when the soil pH level is 5.5 to 6.

Popular Varieties 

You can see many varieties of Rajma in India. Let’s know about them with their production capacity. 

• VL Rajma 125 – It is suitable for the Uttarakhand hills. 
• RBL 6 – This variety is ideal for the irrigated areas of Punjab.

Other state varieties:

• HUR 15
• HUR-137
• Amber
• Arun
• Arka Komal
• Arka Suvidha
• Pusa Parvathi
• Pusa Himalatha
• VL Boni 1
• Ooty 1

Land Preparation

You should give 2 or 3 ploughing to bring the land to a fine tilth. Water stagnation should not occur in the field, so just level the soil after ploughing operations. As we know, the crop is very sensitive to waterlogging. After ploughing operations, you should give the farmyard manure to the field, or you can apply a well-decomposed cow dung@60-80qtl/acre. You can complete these operations with the help of good mileage tractors like Force Tractor and other excellent farming equipment. 

Sowing

February – March is the ideal time for Kidney bean cultivation in the spring season. But for the Kharif season, you should sow the seeds during May – June. In addition, in some places of Punjab, the farmers sow the seeds in the last week of January. Let’s move to know about spacing. You should keep the minimum row space of 45 to 60 cm for early sown varieties, and the plant to plant distance must be 10 to 15 cm. Apart from this, you can sow the seed at a distance of 1 m on the hill and only 3 to 4 plants per hill for pole-type varieties. The 6 to 7 cm of sowing depth is suitable for the Rajma Cultivation.

Moreover, you can use dibbling method for the cultivation of Rajma. You should sow the seeds in lines or beds in the plane areas. But, on the other hand, you have to sow the seeds in ridges in the hilly regions.

Irrigation

You can rinse the field before sowing the seeds to better germination. You have to irrigate the area 6 to 7 times during all seasons. Irrigate the field on the 25th day after the sowing operation, and then you have to rinse it continuously after a 25 days interval. Along with this, you should rinse the field before the blooming stage, during the flowering stage and last at the pod development stage. Yield can show a loss if water stress happens in these stages. So, just follow the mentioned steps to obtain a healthy and high yield. 

Harvesting

You should harvest the field when the pods colour turns yellow and they mature. You can also check the harvesting time on behalf of leaves. At the proper time, leaves turn yellow, and most leaves drop. 7-12 days after flowering, the pods are ready to harvest. The overall crop takes 120-130 days to be prepared for harvesting. Moreover, you have to harvest crops at the right time to skip the shattering. After the harvesting, you should keep harvested plants in the sunshine. Whenever the plants become scorched, the threshing takes place. You can use bullocks or sticks, or threshers for the threshing operations. 

Post Harvest

Rajma needs a little care after harvesting. But you have to take care of it during storage. You should remove the damaged Rajma beans before storing them. You have to keep this crop away from heat and humidity during storage. 

This was all regarding Rajma farming. So stay with us to get more about agriculture, farming methods and others.