by Masiga R. et al.
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| Carpenter bee visiting flowers of French bean |
French beans, also known as snap beans, are grown in
Kenya for export especially to the European Union (EU) market. Most of the
growers are small-scale in operation but invest heavily in crop production to
meet the commodity demand for high standard grades that require smooth,
straight and uniformly formed green pods. Nevertheless, these farmers have
consistently reported achieving less than 50% pods of this high grade,
resulting in more use and higher dependency on external inputs (e.g., inorganic
fertilizers and synthetic pesticides).
To address this challenge, we carried out studies
to determine whether inadequate pollination was one of the problems that affect
French bean production.
