Abaye, Azenegashe Ozzie2020-01-252020-01-252019-11http://hdl.handle.net/10919/96585Lessons learned from the first round of mung bean cultivation from “Why mung bean for Senegal”.<ul> <li>Mung bean’s appealing quality for Senegal includes its quick and aggressive start, short season or early maturing (50-65 days from planting to harvest), its dual use for food and livestock feed, and high market value.</li> <li>Mung bean is well adapted to Senegal’s climate and growing conditions include drought tolerance, and adaptation to marginal soils, relatively low nutrient requirements, and low management requirements. </li> <li>Mung bean can be used as a food, livestock feed, or cover crop. As a food, dried beans (whole or split) may be consumed with staple crops such as rice or millet. Mung bean, thus, represents a major addition to the limited legume crops and supplement to cereal-based diets in Senegal.</li> <li>Mung bean producers from Senegal’s river valley (floodplain recession), may have competitive advantage compared to those growing mung bean under rain-fed and/or irrigation regimes. This is due to the high water-holding capacity of the heavy clay soil.</li> <li>Positive feedback on new/alternative crop (mung bean) as a means to diversify the cropping systems, add potential income to the household and contribute to dietary diversification of the community.</li> <li>Positive feedback from women included the ease and desirability of mung bean harvest, food preparation, and utilization (taste good).</li> <li>The meetings and field visits provided opportunity for the farmers to interact with each other, school officials, reginal and local facilitators and VT/CPI project leaders. Mung bean also provided a platform for all the stakeholders involved to discuss diet diversification and malnutrition reduction at the community level.</li> <li>Overall, the excitement surrounding the introduction, production and consumption of mung bean in the St. Louis region of Senegal has been incredibly exciting and encouraging.</li> <li>We observed no reservation or uncertainty on how to handle/manage a new and unfamiliar crop like mung bean.</li></ul>application/pdfenIn CopyrightReport2020-01-25