Farmers Finding Profit in Adzuki Beans
Biloxi Sun Herald,Sept 29
DES MOINES, Iowa - A new kind of bean is sprouting profits for Iowa farmers.
Some Greene County farmers banded in together in 2001 under the name the Greene Bean Project and starting raising adzuki beans, which are sweet, rust-colored legumes. Three years later, executive director Chris Henning said the group is struggling to keep up with demand.
....Mark Mueller, of rural Waverly, recently harvested 27 acres of adzuki beans, averaging 41 bushels per acre...his adzuki crop is expected to gross $23,275 or $862 an acre, compared to about $400 per acre for soybeans.
Mueller said raising adzuki beans was a good way to diversify his crops.
"I wanted to get away from total reliance on two commodities," Mueller said. "There's profit potential above and beyond regular corn and soybeans."...
