Velvet Bean (1KG)

Description

Product Description:
Velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) is a fast-growing, vigorous leguminous vine that serves as a multipurpose crop. Widely used as forage, green manure, and cover crop, it is also valued for its soil-enhancing properties and pest control benefits. Known for its high nitrogen-fixing ability, Velvet bean improves soil fertility and suppresses weeds, making it ideal for sustainable farming systems. Its seeds are rich in protein and can be used as livestock feed after proper processing.

Product Characteristics Summary:

🌱 Agronomic Information:

• Plant Type: Annual or short-lived perennial leguminous vine.
• Growth Habit: Vigorous trailing or climbing vine, 6–18 m long, with slender, slightly pubescent stems.
• Leaves: Trifoliate, slightly pubescent leaves, 5–15 cm long, with rhomboid-ovate leaflets.
• Flowers: Drooping racemes with white to dark purple flowers.
• Pods & Seeds: Pods are curved, 10–12.5 cm long, containing 2–6 oblong, ellipsoid seeds. Seed colors vary from glossy black to white or brownish with black mottling.

🌾 Forage Quality:

• Forage Yield: Produces 10–35 t/ha of green biomass and 250–3300 kg/ha of seeds under suitable conditions.
• Nutritional Value: High-protein fodder suitable for grazing, hay, and silage.
• Use as Feed: Suitable for ruminants; seeds require processing to remove antinutritional factors before use in monogastrics.

🌞 Resilience & Adaptability:

• Drought Tolerance: Thrives in low soil fertility and dry farming conditions.
• Climate Suitability: Grows in tropical regions with 650–2500 mm annual rainfall and frost-free conditions.
• Soil Type: Tolerates a range of soils, from sands to clays, preferring well-drained, light-textured soils with appreciable acidity.

🌍 Suitability:

• Pasture Type & Use: Used as green manure, cover crop, forage, or silage. Ideal for intercropping with maize, sorghum, or sugarcane.
• Soil Health: Improves soil fertility through nitrogen fixation and provides organic matter. Reduces erosion and suppresses weeds.
• Mixed Forage Systems: Can be intercropped with grasses like Napier grass or cereals such as maize or sorghum.

🌱 Special Attributes:

• Easy Establishment: Can be sown without full soil preparation, making it ideal for quick cover and biomass production.
• Weed Control: Effectively suppresses aggressive weeds such as Cynodon dactylon and Imperata cylindrica.
• Multipurpose: Suitable for livestock feed, soil fertility improvement, and pest control.