Restoring the Soil - Canadian Foodgrains Bank

48Decision Tree Guidec) Pigeon peas. Go to #39.d) Peanuts (also called groundnuts) or bambara groundnuts (Voandazeiasubterranean). Go to #40.26. Honduras. Lablab seeds can be black, red,brown, cream-colored, and speckled, but the hylumis always a bright white. The black seeds may bebetter tasting, at least according to some culturalpreferences.37. Lablab beans. Lablab beans arewidely consumed in northern Peru (asgreen peas), Kenya (as a dry bean, called“black beans”), India (as a pulse, called“horsepeas”), Bangladesh (called “hyacinthbeans”), Cambodia and Vietnam (as drybeans) and the Philippines (as green pods,for which they have a tender variety),just to name the places I have personallyencountered them being eaten. Theycontain no anti-nutritional factors, andtherefore require no special processingbefore being eaten (Photo 26).Lablab beans are especially valuable inareas of moderate to poor rainfall. Once they have grown for five or six months,they are extremely drought-resistant and are capable of growing and producinggrain for four to six additional months with almost no rain at all. This meansthey can provide fresh beans up to six months after the harvest of all the otherfield beans has ended—a very important consideration for the nutritional wellbeingof smallholder farmers. However, lablab beans are not nearly as droughtresistantif they have rain for only three months, so they normally will not dowell in areas with two rainy seasons that last only three months each.Lablab beans can also be cut off at ground level after their first year of production.They will then sprout again. Particularly in drought-prone climates, thispractice can help the lablab bean get a fast start the next year in order to acquiredrought tolerance earlier in its growth period.The main problem with lablab beans is that they do not grow well in poor soilsthat have not been inoculated with rhizobia. In relatively poor soils or in a fieldin which they have not been planted before, it is almost always necessary to fertilizethem with either chemical or organic fertilizers for the first year or two. Afterthose first two years, they will grow very well with no additional fertilizer.Lablab beans are capable of producing over 60 MT/ha of organic matter (greenweight), which means that if grazing animals are not consuming a large part ofthe organic matter, the lablab beans will maintain or gradually increase the soilfertility of maize fields for many years.Lablab beans produce better when they can climb, so they are frequently plantedas an intercrop in maize fields, where they can climb up the maize stalks. They