HarvestPlus, in collaboration with Rwanda Agriculture Board (Rab), has announced a  new way to help farmers grow climbing beans.

The new method, ‘staking climbing beans using non-wood materials’, was unveiled in Kageyo Sector, Gicumbi District on Thursday.

The technology reduces the cost of production by up to 50 per cent compared to use of wood stakes, according to Rab.

During the launch, there was a field demonstration of the new technology on a farm of local farmer, Claude Shirimpumpu, who works with Rab and HarvestPlus as a seed multiplier.

The event was attended by local farmers and 25 delegates of a  farmers’ cooperative from Kirehe District known by its French acronym as COACM who were on a study  tour.

Speaking at the event, Lister Tiwirai Katsvairo, the country manager of HarvestPlus, said there was need to use affordable and environmentally friendly means to produce nutritious foods to achieve food security in the country.

"Farmers have always wanted to produce climbing beans, which yield more than the bush ones. This was communicated to our partners, Rab, hence the present technology,” Katsvairo said.

"Farmers are now going to produce climbing beans which are highly nutritious and with potential to improve their health and wealth,” he added.

Wire staking technology

Augustine Musoni, a Senior Research fellow and head of bean programme at Rab, explained that wire technology involves use of all non-wood threads such as metal wires, banana threads, sisal threads and other feasible materials together with few strong poles which support the threads.

On the top of aligned poles, metal wires are hung and from them weak threads are attached vertically and obliquely which also, in turn, are attached on small sticks fixed in the soil.

The beans, once grown, climb on these threads and proceed on metal wires.

The poles remain fixed and can be reused in the successive seasons while threads are removed and put on seasonal basis.

The technology, according to officials, is cheap, reduces production costs by up to 50 per cent compared to the normal staking,  and is more environment-friendly.

Kirehe farmers, who also work closely with HarvestPlus as seed multipliers, said the demonstration increased their knowledge and pledged to adopt the  technology.

"Our district is suitable for climbing beans production, but our cooperative was constrained by stakes which limited our capacity,” said Simeon Uwihaye, a cooperative representative.

The beans are said to be rich in vitamins and minerals such as vitamin A, zinc, and  iron.

HarvestPlus promotes the beans mainly to address anemia, especially iron deficiency anemia common in women and girls of reproductive age.

Ten high yielding, iron and zinc-rich beans have been released and made available on markets.