ISO 22000, and OSHA Certification Process

 ISO 22000

Food producers all over the world have a responsibility to make sure that their products are not harmful to consumers. Unsafe food can cause serious and fatal problems. In order to help them with this, the ISO 22000 food safety management system was developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

ISO 22000 helps food producers to identify and control food safety hazards and ensure that their products are safe for public consumption. In addition it helps products to cross country borders and bring to people the food that they can trust. ISO 22000 applies to any organization in the food chain, from farm to fork. 

In simple words, you must take all possible actions to make sure that your foods are safe to use. though this is the simple meaning there are formal guidelines as mentioned below to follow in order to obtain the ISO 22000 certification.

• Develop a Food Safety Policy for the organization. You can refer some reputed companies such as Nestle and Coca-cola for food safety policy. 
• State company objectives which inline with food safety policy. 
• Appoint a group of qualified individuals as a Food Safety Team.
• Define communication methods so as to ensure effective communication with external (regulatory, customers, suppliers, and others) and internal communication.
• Have an emergency plan for the organization.
• Develop a Food Safety Management System (FSMS) and record all activities. 
• Hold management review meetings where the performance of the Food Safety Management System will be evaluated.
• Provide adequate and up to date resources for the effective operation of the Food Safety Management System. These include trained and qualified personnel, sufficient infrastructure, effective tools, and optimal work environment to ensure food safety.
• Implement Prerequisite Programs like construction and layout of building, layout of premises and workspace, availability of utilities - air, water, energy, and waste disposal.
• Follow HACCP principles.
• Set up a traceability system for identification of product.You can use batch numbers, bar-code, or any other serial number for this. 
• Set up a corrective action system and control of nonconforming product.
• Maintain a documented procedure for handling withdrawal of product.
• Maintain monitoring and measuring devices in good condition with relevant certifications.
• Conduct an internal audit program.
• Update and improve the Food Safety Management System continuously. 

As mentioned above ISO 22000 required a documented Food Safety Management System for their organisation. This system simply addresses the following points:

• Availability of Effective Prerequisite Programs that ensure a clean sanitary environment.
• A Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Plan that will be implemented to identify, prevent, and eliminate food safety hazards.
• Documented food safety management system processes that will be followed when managing food safety throughout the organization. 

ISO is developing additional food safety management standards that are related to ISO 22000. These standards will be collectively known as the ISO 22000 family of standards. Currently, this family of standards consists of the following standards:

• ISO 22000 - Food safety management systems.
• ISO 22001 - Guidelines on the application of ISO 9001:2000 for the food and drink industry.
• ISO/TS 22002- Prerequisite programmes on food safety.
• ISO TS 22003 - Guidelines for bodies providing audit and certification of food safety management systems.
• ISO TS 22004 - Guideline to application of ISO 22000:2005.
• ISO 22005 - Guidelines for traceability in the feed and food chain.
• ISO 22006 - Quality management systems.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA

OSHA is an important as well as somewhat easy certificate to obtain for any organization. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issue guidelines which are for employers to follow in order to protect their employees from work related hazards. Therefore OSHA's duty is to ensures that employees are working in a safe and healthful environment. There are different OSHA standards for different industries, for example,

• OSHA standards for construction work.
• OSHA standards for maritime operations.
• OSHA standards for general industry (which applies to most worksites)

In general, all of these standards direct for establishing safe practices within the organization which will eventually increase the safety and health condition of employees. if you follow general conditions which are mentioned below in your organization, it will not be difficult to get the OSHA certificate for your organization. 

• provide fall protection. you can cover all trenches, display warning signs and provide fall protection equipment for employees. 
• prevent infectious diseases.  
• prevent unsafe exposure to harmful substances like asbestos or chemicals. provide relevant personal protective equipment (PPE).  
• put guards on dangerous machines, specially moving machines. 
• provide formal training for employees who are performing high risk works.
• keep accident record book and update with preventive actions for all kind of previous accidents.
• provide necessary sanitary facilities such as clean toilets and bathrooms.

If you can make the organization environment as per all the above general OSHA guidelines, you will be qualified to obtain OSHA Certification. These standards are constantly updated. You can get a full list of current OSHA standards from their website.

How to Obtain GAP and GMP Certificates for your Products

GAP    (Good Agricultural Practices)

Global G.A.P. is a private sector organisation that develops and establishes voluntary standards for the certification of agricultural products around the world. Their mission is to establish a set of standards that:

• Facilitate Good Agricultural Practices.
• Minimize the detrimental effects of farming operations on the environment. 
• Aim at reducing the use of chemical usage.
• Ensures the safety of agricultural workers as well as animals.
• Ensures that vegetables and fruits are produced, packed, handled, and stored as safely as possible in order to minimize risks of food contamination by microbial organisms.

Good agricultural practices refers to the basic environmental and operational conditions necessary for the production of safe, wholesome fruits and vegetables. They are actions taken by produce farmers to reduce the risk of microbial contamination in their farm products.

What are the Good Agricultural Practices?

• Buying animals of known disease status only and control their introduction into the farm. 
• Making sure the transportation of animals on and off the farm does not introduce diseases. 
• Using chemicals according to directions or as instructed by chemist. 
• Using veterinary medicines as prescribed by veterinarians only when treating animals. 
• Making sure the nutritional needs of animals are met. 
• Making sure that the water used is from a good safe source. 
• Ensuring proper disposal of waste. 
• Ensuring that the packing and refrigerators are well maintained and not a potential source of contamination.
• 
  

 5 Steps to Get Certified

1. Download the GLOBAL G.A.P. Standard documents and checklists that valid for your farm or product from GLOBAL G.A.P’s Document Centre.
2. Search available G.A.P certification organisations in your country and select one.ou can find a full list of GLOBAL G.A.P. approved certification bodies on the GLOBAL G.A.P’s Certified Bodies page. Register there and you will get a GLOBAL G.A.P. Number (GGN).
3. Do a self-assessment using the checklist you obtained and correct all the standards you do not comply with. You may get assistance from a GLOBAL G.A.P. licensed farm assurer.
4. Schedule an appointment with the GLOBAL G.A.P. approved certification body that you chose, and an inspector will then conduct the first on-site inspection.
5. Once you are successful, meaning you comply with all the standard’s requirements, you will receive a GLOBAL G.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance Standard Certificate for the relevant version and scope which is valid for one year.

Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)

Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) is a system of processes, procedures, and documentation that facilitates production of quality products all over the globe. It makes sure that such products are consistently produced.

GMP takes into consideration all the aspects of production of a product, from its raw materials, premises, and equipment to the training and personal hygiene of staff. It consists of detailed written procedures which are essential for every process that could affect the quality of the finished product.

GMP’s mission 

• Outline a quality system that reduces or prevents errors.
• Ensure products are safe.
• Prevent and better manage contamination and cross-contamination.
• Prevent false information, mislabeling and adulteration.
• Provide a better understanding and comply with the relevant laws and regulations.
• Enhance the international credibility and public image.

These GMP guidelines and regulations ensures that manufacturers, processors, and packagers of drugs, medical devices, and food take proactive measures to ensure that their products are safe, pure, and effective. GMP guidelines and regulations outlines a number of issues that can influence the safety and quality of a product. some these guidelines are;

Hygiene:  Production institutions must maintain a clean and hygienic manufacturing area. There should be a proper cleaning mechanism and waste disposal method.

Controlled Environmental Conditions: You must Prevent product contamination and cross contamination from outside. 

Manufacturing processes: All the manufacturing processes should be closely monitored for errors, defined well, and controlled.

Instructions and procedures: All instruction should be mentioned clearly, and Straightforward. Otherwise some miscommunication may occur and that is not good for the process. 

Operators: Adequately trained to carry out works and document procedures.

Records that demonstrate compliance: All the safety, cleaning, operations and other process should be recorded during manufacturing process either manually or by machines/software. This will help to understand the errors and and trends. 

Details of the manufacturer: (including distribution) that enable the complete history of a batch to be traced are retained in a comprehensible and accessible form.

The distribution of the products: This is not significantly affect to the quality. How ever it is helpful to recall any batch of the product due to error or quality issues.

Complaints: All the complaints are examined and investigated, and appropriate measures are taken with respect to the defective products and to prevent recurrence. 

If you have completed all above compliance in acceptable level, you can apply for GMP certification via your GMP certification agent. They will check and issue you the certificate. 

Food Dehydration Process - Methods of Dehydrating

Dehydrated fruits, vegetables and meat items are getting famous among most of the people. Therefore these products create a huge market all around the world. Therefore it is good to know about dehydration process and various methods that can be used to dehydrate food products. 

Sun drying

This is the general practice since many years. Still in most of our home we used to dry things using this sun drying method. Sun drying is very effective in places with long periods of hot sun specially countries near to equator. Also anywhere with a minimum temperature of 28 – 30 C with less relative humidity is suitable. Normally foods take several days to dry thoroughly. Place on a mesh screen and cover with a second screen to protect from dirt and animals.

Air drying

Same as sun drying, air drying is also a common practice of dehydrating foods. The main difference is that air drying usually takes place in the shade. This is suitable for foods which need less heat to dry such as leaves and herbs.

Solar drying

An advance method of sun drying. Since there are no heaters or fans to circulate the air, solar drying uses zero electricity. Solar dryers work outdoors and can be designed as per the required size, and shape.

Solar Dryer Arrangement

Oven drying

Your home oven can be used to slowly dry food at temperatures around 60 C. Normally ovens are designed for higher temperature applications. However you can use this method for some home made quick dried foods. Make sure to maintain temperature around 60 C or below. Otherwise foods will be cooked instead of drying.

Dehydrators

With the market advancement of dehydrated food, special appliances were designed for commercial dehydration purpose. These dehydrators equipped with fans and elements to quickly and efficiently dry your food. These dehydrators can be powered with electricity, Gas, Kerosene, wood or any other method.

Dehydrating in a microwave oven

If you have a small amount of food to dehydrate, you can consider using your microwave set on ‘defrost’ to dry fruits and herbs. In general, microwaved fruits will take 20 to 40 minutes to dry fully, but keep checking on them so you don’t overdo it. 

 

If you are planning to make lot of dehydrated foods it is advisable to find a commercial dehydrator with more surface area as the amount of time take to dehydration process is anywhere from 5 to 14 hours. Properly packed, dehydrated fruits can last up to five years and vegetables up to ten. If you are going to consume non-meat items within a year, keep them in freezer bags or reusable storage bags with the air squeezed out. For long-term preservation, vacuum packing is the best.

Five Ways to Find Buyers for Agriculture Products

This is really a hard part in the business. Without buyers you do not have business. First of all you should decide whether you are going to target retails buyers/customers or Bulk buyers/customers. Depending on that, your strategies for persuading buyers will vary. Though there are many ways to find buyers, most common five methods of finding buyers are; 

1. Direct Negotiations with Shops and Supermarkets .
2. Through Social Media
3. E-commerce Websites/Platforms
4. Agriculture Exhibitions / Trade Fairs
5. Relevant State Departments

1. Direct Negotiations with Shops and Supermarkets. – You can use your personal contacts and negotiate with some shops and supermarkets to sell your products. Obviously you have to give them some commission. This is good for small scale businesses to target the retail market. In some supermarkets, they register suppliers in every year through their website or manual applications. You can register there and start business with them.

2. Through Social Media – Social media can be used easily to find buyers for your products. But this is also suitable for small scale businesses. You can start Facebook page, promote and sell your products through online delivery system. Also there are some Facebook groups and WhatsApp groups which create for import and export purpose of agriculture products. You can join these groups and catch some international buyers too. Anyway better to be careful in these groups since there are some fake buyers. 

3. E-commerce Websites/Platforms – We all are familiar with this kind of websites. There are websites for B2B and also for B2C. You can easily register as a supplier or seller and start selling your products. Normally all of these websites provide free registration. However that free registration may not be sufficient enough to attract buyers at the beginning. So you may have to get paid membership, or paid advertisements to attract some buyer. Top 5 eCommerce web sites suitable for agriculture products are;

i. Alibaba 
ii. Go4worldbusiness
iii. IndiaMart
iv. Globalsources
v. ebay

4. Agriculture Exhibitions / Trade Fairs – Participating for Agriculture Exhibitions and trade fairs expose your products to really interested buyers. This method is very effective than others. Find agriculture exhibitions near you or international exhibitions and you can have good chance to catch some real buyers. Normally in most of the countries there are many exhibitions per year. 

5. Relevant State Departments – If you are going for large scale businesses and export businesses, normally in each country there are some state departments such as Export Development Boards to help and guide. You can talk to them and get some information or links about international buyers. However if you are going to find buyers in this path, your products should comply with international standards and certificates since these are diplomatic links. 

These are the all common method you can use to find buyer for your agriculture products. Try these methods and make good business in future.  

How to Select a Land or Building for an Agriculture Business

Selecting a suitable property is directly involved with the cost of products. Main property you need for an agriculture business is a land, if you are going to start an agriculture farming business or building if you are thinking about a value added products. 

Regardless of the property type you have to consider below factors when selecting. 

1. Distance to end market and raw materials – If you select a place that is so far from your market or raw material supply, you have to add extra transport cost and wastage cost to the production. Therefore it is recommended to minimize the distance from your market and raw material supply to your factory or farm.  

2. Infrastructure availability - Main infrastructures you need for your business are Electricity, Transport and Water. Therefore when selecting a property you have to check whether these basic infrastructures are available or not. In addition to these, Telephone, Internet, Laboratories may be needed depending on your business nature. You have to check those required infrastructure availability too. 

3. Surrounding Environment Condition – Surrounding area may be close to a protected area such as bird sanctuary, national park, etc. In this case you may have to adjust your business process according to the guidelines given by relevant authorities. Sometimes your property may be close to a rural village where poor people live; in this case you can have benefits by recruiting some cheap, unskilled labors. 

4. Future Value of the Property – Most of the time value of the property increases with the time since the population grows and the demand increases. However there are some cases, which decrease your future value of the property. As an example, if any other business starts near to your property which emits some harmful gas, waste or smell, then your property value will be decrease with the time. Therefore better to get an idea about what is happening near your property. Anyway if you can gain some supernormal profit and recover your investment within short period, no need to worry about the property value. 

5. Method of Acquiring – There are many ways to acquire the property you need such as Short term lease, Long term Lease, Purchasing, etc. That depends on your business plan. If you are planning long term business in that property, better to go for purchasing or long term lease (20 -30 Years). It will reduce future problems. In the other hand you can lease the property for short term purpose if you are not planning to continue the business in same place. 

6. Distance to other support services – It is better if you can find a place where other support services also close by. Other services mean the Banks, Apartments, Supermarkets, Hospitals, and Governments offices. Your property value as well as your investments also will increase with all of these services. 

It will be not easy to find a property which fulfills all the above factors. However you have to study all the above factors properly and select the optimum solution when selecting a property for the business. If you consider all of these factors, the property itself can generate good profit in future.

How to Start a Successful Agriculture Business

There are many businesses in the world that anyone can do with some risk. Starting a low risk business is a wise decision. At present many businesses face many challenges such as global economic tensions, wars, pandemics, political issues, technological issues, etc. However, no matter the situation, all the people in the world need food and agriculture products as basic needs to survive. Since the population grows, market demand for the agriculture products is rising with the time. Therefore in this situation it is wise decision to start an agriculture business.  In this article you will find the basic factors you should know before starting an agriculture business. 

What are the things you need to start a successful Agriculture Business?  

1.    Business Idea
2.    Knowledge and Technology
3.    Suitable Property
4.    Investment
5.    Market
6.    Risk Management

How to Select an Agri Business Idea?

This is the most important part of your business. If you select the right idea, you will be success in future.  To get an idea about a suitable business you can check below factors. 

• Potential Business Area – If your area has favorable weather condition for farming and if it is possible to find suitable lands for low cost, you should consider about farming. Or else, you can think about value added product business. You can purchase fruits, diary or vegetables from farmers and make some value added products or processed products which also have good profit and market. 

• Market - your product or service business idea should be marketable. If you come up with brilliant spicy food idea in non-spicy society, your idea will not be marketable. If you are planning for a long term business it is important to see future market trends as well.

• Risk and Profit – In general condition people say “Higher the Risk, Higher the Return”. However you should consider about the potential risk and profit you can earn. As a startup business it is advisable to go for low risk businesses than the high risk. Anyway it is entirely up to you. 

Selecting a suitable idea will take some time, yet it is important to study all of those factors and select the business which has highest profit relevant to the risk involve. For this you can even get some expert’s advice to make sure whether your idea is viable or not. 

Knowledge and Technology

After the idea, you must have the required knowledge for the business or knowledge should be available to acquire easily. Most of the time you can get conventional agriculture knowledge from relevant government departments, or there are many websites, you tube channels and blog sites which give you the basic knowledge on conventional agriculture businesses. 

However If you are looking for advance agriculture technologies or processing methods, you have to find a way to access that knowledge. There may be some government institutions to help you or you may have to find your own ways to acquire that knowledge. 

Acquiring proper knowledge and technology is important to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your business which help you to stay competitive in the market. 

Selecting a Suitable Property

Selecting a suitable property is directly involved with the cost of products. There may be few properties required for your business. Those required properties can be categorized as;

1. Land or Building Depending on the Business type. You can select a land if you are going to start an agriculture farming business or building if you are thinking about a value added product. This is just identify your basic requirement, however when selecting a land or building for a business there are many other factors to consider. 

2. Required Machinery – As per the selected technology you may have to purchase some machinery for the business. As an example, if you are going to make some dehydrated foods, you have to purchase a dehydrator, Automatic packing machine, etc. However, depending on the area some works can be done manually if cheap labor is available. So you can reduce the properties. 

You have to study all the above factors properly and select the optimum solution when selecting a property for the business. 

Investment

After selecting the required properties you can have a good idea about the investment you need to start the business. There are many ways to do the investment. Most common methods are;

1. Investing your own savings

2. Bank Loans

3. Joint Partnerships

However the investment method also depends on many factors. If the business is new to you, better to invest small amount first and study the business while doing it. Also you can start with manual works, and move in to automated high technology with higher investment later. This will reduce your risk of investment. But if you are planning for large scale production, then definitely you have to go with higher investment and high technology at the beginning

Market

“How to capture the local and export market” is the most important thing in your business.  As long as you satisfy your customers they will stay with you and they will loyal to you too. Therefore you should do a market survey and get an idea about your market and market behavior. It is better not to target large market segment at the beginning and start the business with a small market. Later with the development of your business you can expand the market too. 

This market study should be done at the beginning of the business and your production planning should be in line with the market requirement. If you do over production, your products waste, and you may have to spend additional cost to store them. If you do under production, another competitor gets good chance to enter in to your market. Therefore market study plays a main role in your business.

Risk Management

Every business has some level of risk for the investment. Therefore you have to consider the risk and take necessary steps to reduce the risk. Some of the common and effective methods of risk management are;

1. Insure the Business

2. Share the investment (Joint ventures)

3. Combine 2-3 products/businesses

4. Creating a good business portfolio

Insurance is the basic method. You can easily insure your business. However you have to study the insurance policies first, as some insurance companies add some unreasonable conditions to the insurance policy. 

Those are basic things required to start an Agriculture Business. 

Organic Insecticides

At present, Organic farming methods are spreading fast around the world as a pandemic. The main reason for moving towards the organic farming is the increase in non-transferable diseases like diabetes, various types of cancers, high blood pressure, Heart diseases and kidney diseases. When practicing organic farming, it is important to use organic pesticides instead of chemical/artificial pesticides to achieve the real objective of the organic farming. This article explains how to make and use simple recipe of organic insecticide which will helpful to repel mealybug, grasshoppers, stem borers, aphids and many other insects. These organic insecticides can be used in Papaya cultivation, Green Chili Cultivation, Vegetable Cultivation and in many more cultivations.

Ingredients

kohomba

•       Dried Tobacco leaves  
•       Raw Neem/Kohomba Leaves
•       Soap
•       Water

Procedure

• Take equal amount of tobacco and Neem leaves.
• Put them into a blender, mix some hot water and crush them properly
• Boil them few minutes
• Add little amount of soap and mix before it cool down
• Filter the juice from refuse 

• 

  Insecticide liquid
•      Add similar amount of water (1:1 Ration)
•      Fill it into a spray bottle and spray on plants

This video explain above steps clearly and you can have a good understanding about the procedure. 

It is not difficult to make this insecticide at home and make sure to spray properly on both sides of the plant leaves. This organic insect repel will help you to control insects in your farm.

Cassava Products 1 - Cassava Chips

Cassava is a tropical root crop rich in starch that is consumed by over 500 million people all over the world. It is a food that content high amount of carbohydrates among all the common staple foods. Though cassava can be eat directly as a food, cassava is widely used to make many other products like cassava flour, Chips, animal food, alcohol, sweeteners, bio-degradable products and starches for sizing papers, etc. farmers can become manufacturers my producing one or few of these products and earn some more profit than selling raw cassava. This article will explain few of these products and general manufacturing process of each product to give basic ideas to farmers who are willing to become manufacturers in future.

Cassava Chips

Cassava Chips

Cassava chips are the most common product that we can find in the market. Also it is very easy to make cassava chips, yet few farmers are doing it. Most of the time, other intermediate persons produce these chips and make huge profit out of it. Making process is very simple and described below. 

• Select some medium size fresh cassava roots. Smaller ones and larger ones are not suitable for this. Better to select cassava roots which has diameter of 10 -18 mm. however you can choose the chips size as per the market requirement. 

• Clean them and peel off properly. Cut off both ends of the root and wash them again.

• Cut the root into small slices. You should careful to maintain 1-2 mm thickness for slices and the same thickness for each slice. Otherwise the crispy quality will be less in your cassava chips. You can use simple handmade machine or electrical machine to cut these roots into slices. see below video and you can have brief idea of cassava chip machine.

• Now you can deep fry these slices in pre-heated coconut oil (palm oil or vegetable oil also can be used) until the chips become golden colour.

  

  Golden Colour Cassava Chips

• Take them out after they become golden colour and let them rest on a clean paper or strainer until excess oil get out.

• Finally you can mix salt, chili powder and fried curry leaves as you want and pack them to sell. There are many ingredients used in cassava chips for commercial business. However some of these chemical ingredients are not suitable for the health. therefore it is advisable to use natural spices to make them spicy. 

Ingredients used in Cassava chips 

Though the process is easy, cassava chip has a big market in each country. You can produce these chips in any scale as per your market and still you can earn some good profit.

Ginger Products 1 - Biscuits

Although ginger is a common spice specially in Asian region, it has been used for many countries all over the world. However, it is a diverse spice in India and China and it is mainly used in cuisines in Asia. Not only as a spice ginger can be used to make many food products and medicines which give a real value addition to the harvest. Also making ginger related products can be considered as a post harvest management technique. Let's learn more about the most common ginger products in the world and farmers can become a manufacturers by manufacturing any of these products and make some more profit. 

Ginger Biscuits

Ginger Biscuits

Ginger is used in the baking industry back in the fifteenth century. During this time, bread crumbs were used in baking of ginger biscuits and ginger spices and honey were commodities believed to be for the rich community only. Anyway today, ginger biscuits are consumed by people of all the classes and these tasty little ginger biscuits can be made in to any desirable shape.

Ginger biscuit has a complete range of tasty from savory lentil(dal) to sweet. Raw ginger root has a fiery taste. Normally ginger can be purchased as ground ginger, fresh ginger, preserved in syrup, crystallized or pickled. In order to make ginger biscuits, ground ginger is widely used. Some biscuits manufacturers come up with unique biscuit recipes by varying the ginger content and type in the biscuit, which gives unique identity to their business in the industry. The general way of making ginger biscuit is as follows.

How to Make Ginger Biscuits

• Mix two tea spoonful of ginger powder with 50 grams of butter, 100 grams of soft brown sugar, two eggs and four tea spoonfuls of golden syrup at room temperature.

• Mix 500 grams of plain baking flour with two tea spoonfuls of all spices and half two tea spoonful of baking soda (bicarbonate soda).
• mixed all ingredient later and make sure to mix thoroughly until they are completely mixed. Wrap them (or cover) and leave it to rest in a fridge about one hour and thirty minutes.
• Take the dough mixture in the fridge and roll it until the thickness become around 5mm on a flat surface. lightly put some flour on the surface. 
• Cut the rolled dough mixture into the shapes you prefer and place it on a non-stick baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven for about 8-10 minutes or until the biscuit color becomes golden.

These biscuits can be sold commercially. The biscuit business has huge potential market as they are consumed in almost every household daily. The demand for ginger biscuits is very high in every social class whether in urban areas or rural areas. Adding some innovative, creative and unique packaging, and unique flavors will make high demanded product in the market.

Packet of Ginger Biscuit

Green Gram / Mung Bean Cultivation

Cultivation of green gram or mung bean is been practiced for a long period of time. Farmers from all around the world cultivate the green gram mostly for consumption and also for export purposes. Green gram can be farmed domestic scale or commercial scale. In most remote area of African countries the crop is mainly grown for domestic consumption. Whereas in countries like  India, Indonesia, the green gram is mainly grown as a commercial cultivation which  contributes to the GDP of the country. 

Mung beans  can be grown either as a single crop (mono-cropping) or as an inter-crop (mixed crop). 

Botanical name of Green gram:  Vigna Radiata Family:  Leguminoseae 
Origin:   India and Central Asia

Green gram is a self-pollinated crop. In north Asian region, it is cultivated in both monsoon seasons and summer seasons and in south Asia it is cultivated in one monsoon season (Rabi). 

Use of Green Gram / Mung Beans

• It can be consumed as whole grains. 
• Preparation of curry or a savory dish (South India).
• Green gram plants increase the nitrogen content of the soil.
• Food for Animals. The husk of the seed can be soaked in water and used as cattle feed.
• Mung beans can be used to produce cereals and supplementary nutrient products.

Health Benefits of  Green Gram / Mung Beans

Green gram is an excellent source of high quality protein (25%) having high digestibility.  Due to its easily digestibility patients prefer eating it for quick recovery. It is also a good source of Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid).    

Mung bean is a highly nutritive grain, rich in proteins and ideal source for starchy or cereal based balanced diet. 

Nutritional content of 100g of raw mung been is shown in the below table.

Nutrient	Composition for 100g of Raw Green Gram / Mung Beans
Water	9.1 g
Energy	1453kJ (347kcal)
Protein	23.8 g
Fat	1.1 g
Carbohydrates	62.6 g
Dietary Fiber	16.3 g
Calcium	132.0 mg
Magnesium	189 mg
Phosphorus	367 mg
Iron Vitamin A, Vitamin B6 Zn Essential Amino acids	6.7 mg

Addition to the Raw mung bean, people eat sprouts of mung beans which contain many other benefits than the nutrients.  It reduces the risk of heart deceases, reduce blood sugar levels and improve the digestion activities. Also low carbohydrate content and the total fat content will help you to eat more mung beans without getting fat. 

Sprouts of Green Gram - Healthy Diet 

Suitable Environmental Conditions for Plantation

Green gram is suitable for regions having an annual rainfall of 600-750mm. It requires a little bit hot and warm climate. Green gram can withstand in any adverse weather conditions, particularly in drought areas with little bit of water. However, It grow properly in moisturized soils. Precautions must be taken to prevent water logging and also plant growth will could be slacked due to cloudy weather are harmful for the crop. As mentioned earlier, it can be grown in all the three seasons in the year.  

Soil

Green gram can be grown on many varieties, from sandy loam to black humus. Alkaline soils with high pH range of more than 8.5 are not suitable for green gram cultivation.  Green gram is very sensitive to water logging conditions, therefore a farmer must ensure proper irrigation system.

Land preparations 

The field should be well leveled and the residue from previous farming season must be removed from the soil. Farmers mostly prepare fields in harsh weather conditions where the sun is at its intense move. Therefore giving two or three ploughing using either local plough or harrow is recommended. Each ploughing/harrowing should be followed by leveling and covering the field with hay or polythene to minimize the loss of moisture by evaporation. 

In Asia, most research reveals that the recommended spacing are 45 cm x 10 cm, and  30 cm x 10 cm. Seeds should also be sown at an estimated depth of  6 mm.

Variety selection

There are several types of mung beans such as traditional ones and scientifically developed mung beans. The traditional mung bean has many drawbacks such as late maturing, long harvesting period, low yield, small seeds and susceptible to several diseases. 

Therefore it is recommended to use scientifically developed varieties which anyone can purchase from relevant institutions in your own country. Normally, good plants mature within 60-65 days and give 1000-1200kg yield per hectare. 

It is recommended to treat seeds before sowing by using any kind of organic or chemical fungicide to prevent diseases. Thiram or Captan 2 to 3 g/kg of seeds is used as common fungicide. 

Green Gram / Mung Bean Cultivation - 2 is coming soon...