HARVESTING AND YIELD.   The time taken by the crop to mature ranges from four to ten months. The extra-early and early varieties are harvested in the middle or end of November, whereas the medium and late varieties remain in the field till late (January-March). Pods may be picked at frequent intervals. Finally, when most of the leaves have dried up and shed, the plants are cut close to the ground, tied into bundles, carted to the threshing floor, stacked upright, dried for a few days and vigorously shaken. The resultant material (pods and dry leaves) is beaten with sticks or is trampled by bullocks. The seeds and chaff are separated by winnowing. The cleaned grains are usually stored in earthen pots, covered at the top with a layer of stand.

The average yield of the mixed dry crop varies from 200 to 800 kg of grains per hectare. The pure or irrigated crop may yield from 1,500 to 1,800 kg.

VARIETIES.   Numerous varieties of this crop are in cultivation. They differ in height, growth habit, and the maturity of plants or in colour, size and shape of pods and seeds, or in their resistance to diseases, such as wilt. A useful grouping is on the basis of maturity. Several extra early (120-day) and early-maturing (150-day) varieties are now available. Medium-maturing varieties take 180-200 days to reach maturity, whereas late varieties take more than 200 days.

The improved varieties, given in Table 14, are recommended for cultivation in different zones of the country.

MINOR PULSES
Rajmash(phaseolus vulgaris Linn.) It is grown only in Maharashtra ,Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir covering 80-85 thousand hectares of land. Promising varieties, namely 'HIM 1', 'Jawala', 'Hans', 'Jampa', 'Manus', 'Vaghya' and 'VL Rajamash 63' can be popularized in the nw areas. 'Jawala' has attractive scarlet-red seeds, 'Hans' has bold white seeds and 'HIM !' has medium bold, light pink seeds with red spots. Some of the recent promising varieties are 'PDR 3', 'PDR 14' and 'PDR 20'.

Seeding technique.Rajmash is grown as a kahrif crop in the hilly tracts and should be ideally sown during 15-30 June. However, the determinate and early-maturing varieties can also be grown in the spring season from February to April in the subtropical belt and during March-May or August-October in subtemperate areas. In plains like those of Maharashtra rajmash is raised as a rabi crop. The row-to-row distance needed is 25-30 cm. Seed rate for medium-seeded varieties may be about 35-40 kg/ha, whereas for bold-seeded varieties the seed rate is about 45-50 kg/ha; giving a stand of about 1-1.5 lakh plants/ha.

Agronomic management. To ensure proper germination and healthy plants, the seed must be treated before sowing with any of the fungicides like Brassicol, Agrosan GN or Ceresan. It is always advisable to inoculate the seed with an appropiate strain of Rhizobium before sowing. Application of 15-20 kg nitrogen and 40-50 kg P₂O₅/ha is recomended at the time of sowing. Rajma responds even to higher amounts of nitrogen. Two weedings and hoeing are sufficient to control weeds, and result in higher yield. This crop in India generally shows poor root nodulation.

Plant protection. Hairy caterpillar, blister-beetles and bean-bugs normally damage the crop. Spraying with 1.5 kg Carbaryl (50 WP) or Endosulfan (35 EC) in 625 litres of water per hectare is useful in pest control. Dusting with 10% BHC @ 20-25 kg/ha can also help in controlling these insects. Most of the diseases can be controlled by growing healthy seed obtained from disease-free localities produced in dry areas under irrigation.