BEANS
Locally, beans are the most important pulses, and rank second to maize as a food crop. Beans grow best in medium to moderately high rainfall areas. Too much rains and long dry spells lead to reduced yields.
Varieties
Canadian wonder, Rose coco, Mwezi Moja, Mwitemania, Red Haricot, Wairimu etc. There are also recently developed varieties from Katumani which include: Katumani Bean 1(KAT-B1), Katumani Bean 9 (KAT B9) Gacuma, Katumani X-56 (KAT X-56) and Katumani X-69 (KAT X-69).
COW PEAS (Vigna unguiculata (L) Walp
Cowpeas are grown mostly for their edible beans, although the leaves, green peas and green pea pods can also be consumed, meaning the cowpea can be used as a food source before the dried peas are harvested. Cow-peas thrive in poor dry conditions, growing well in soils up to 85% sand. This makes them a particularly important crop in dry areas.
As well as an important source of food for humans as well as feed for livestock. It also has nitrogen fixing ability means that as well as functioning as a sole-crop, the cow-peas can be effectively inter- cropped with sorghum, millet, maize, cassava or cotton.
Varieties
Kitui black eye-leaves and grains for food, M66, Katumani 80 (K80), Zebra, Randa, KVU- 419- grain for food, Kunde 1 and local varieties. The 4-K Manual – A Guide for 4-K Clubs in Kenya
Groundnuts (Arachis hypogea L.)
Groundnut (peanut) is a high value crop nutritionally and economically important legume cash crop for the tropical farmers and its seeds contain high amounts of edible oil (43-55%) and protein (25-28%). The nuts are a good source of cash income to smallholder farmers. The raw materials are useful in agro-based industries while the main co-product (cake) is an excellent concentrate in animal feeding. Green and conserved fodder is fed to animals while the haulms are used to make briquettes. Groundnuts form good green manure and soil cover crop to prevent excessive moisture loss and contribute to soil fertility. There are two main types of groundnut crop are the bunch and the runner and this in relation to their growth habits. Bunch varieties mature in 60 – 75 days and runner varieties mature in 90 – 100 days. The runner varieties therefore require a longer growing season.
Varieties
Groundnut varieties fall into three groups depending on growth habit namely: i) Bunch (erect) ii) Spreader (runner) iii) Semi-erect. Bunch type (Valencia):Red Valencia (Uganda red), ICGV-SM 12988, ICGV- SM 12991, Spreader type (Virginia): Homabay, ICGVSM 88710, ICGVSM 89749, Uganda stripe. ICGVSM 90704, ICGVSM 9956, ICGVSM 12991.