Transportation and storage condition

The optimum moisture for transporting grain is 13%.Cleaning and grading procedures must be carried out before storage.Ideal storage conditions should keep mung beans at exactly 12% moisture.Pests, diseases and abiotic stresses.The yield potential of most mun bean varieties is 1.8-2.5 tonnes/ha. However, the actual average yield of mung beans hovers around 0.5-0.7 tons/ha. Several factors limit its yield, including biotic stress (pests and diseases) and abiotic stress.Stress not only reduces productivity, but also affects the physical quality of the seeds, rendering them completely unusable or unsuitable for human consumption. All stresses combined can result in significant yield losses of up to 10%-100%.

Pests 

Pests attack mung bean at all crop stages from sowing to storage stage,causing serious impact on crop yield. Some pests directly damage crops, while others act as disease vectors and spread viruses.Stem fly (bean fly) is one of the main pests of mung bean.This pest attacks crops within a week of germination and, under prevailing conditions, can cause total crop loss.Bemisia tabaci, B. tabaci, is a serious pest of mung beans, which damages crops either directly by forming black sooty mold that feeds on phloem sap and secretes honeydew on the plant, or indirectly by spreading mung bean yellow mosaic disease (MYMD).Whiteflies cause mung bean yield losses ranging from 17% to 71%.Thrips infest mung beans during the seedling and flowering stages.In the seedling stage, thrips infect the growth point of the seedlings when the seedlings are unearthed, and in severe cases, the seedlings cannot grow.Flowering thrips cause severe damage and attack during flowering and pod setting, where they feed on flower peduncles and stigmas. With severe infestation, flowers will drop and pods will not form.The spotted borer, Maruca vitrata, is a major pest of tropical and subtropical mung beans.The pest caused a 2-84% reduction in mung bean yields, worth $30 million.Larvae damage all stages of crops, including flowers, stems, peduncles, and pods; however, severe damage occurs during anthesis, where larvae form webs that bind flowers and leaves.The cowpea aphid feeds on plant sap, causing loss of plant vigor and may cause plant parts to turn yellow, stunt, or deform. Additionally, aphids secrete honeydew (unused sap), which causes sooty mold to grow on plant parts.The cowpea aphid can also be used as a carrier of mung bean common mosaic virus.Bruchid is the worst legume seed storage pest worldwide, causing losses of up to 100% within 3-6 months if left unchecked.Bruchid infestation in mung beans leads to reduced seed weight, poor germination, and nutritional changes, thereby reducing nutritional and market value, making them unsuitable for human consumption, agriculture, and commercial use.

Disease

Mung bean yellow mosaic disease (MYMD) is an important viral disease of mung bean and causes severe yield loss every year. MYMD is caused by three different begomoviruses and is transmitted by whiteflies.The economic damage caused by MYMD resulted in production cuts of up to 85% in India.The main fungal diseases are cercospora leaf spot (CLS), dry root rot, powdery mildew and anthracnose.Dry root rot (Macrophomina phaseolina) is an emerging mung bean disease causing 10-44% mung bean yield losses in India and Pakistan.The pathogen affects the fibrovascular system in the root and basal internodes of the host, impeding the transport of water and nutrients to the upper part of the plant.Sick blight, bacterial leaf spot and brown spot are important bacterial diseases.

Abiotic stress

Abiotic stress negatively affects plant growth and productivity and is a major cause of substantial losses in agriculture worldwide.Declining crop yields due to environmental change has increased steadily over several decades.Salinity affects crop growth and yield through osmotic stress, ion toxicity, and nodulation reduction, ultimately leading to reduced nitrogen fixation capacity.Excess salt can cause leaf damage, which in turn reduces photosynthesis.High temperature stress has a negative impact on the reproductive development of mung bean, and affects all reproductive traits, such as flower initiation, pollen vigor, fertilization, pod setting, seed quality, etc.hardening.Mung beans require a slight moisture state in the soil during their growth and completely dry conditions when harvested. Since it is primarily grown under rain-fed conditions, it is more prone to water scarcity than many other edible legumes. Drought affects its growth and development by negatively affecting vegetative growth, flowering initiation, abnormal pollen behavior, and pod setting.At the same time, however, excessive moisture or waterlogging, even for a short period, especially during early plant growth stages, can be detrimental to crops.Mung beans can also suffer from excess soil and atmospheric moisture during the rainy season, which can cause mature pods to germinate before harvest.It reduces the quality of the seeds/grains produced.

Comprehensive disease management

Using climate analysis tools available on the web can first help farmers consult climate records and ask questions related to rainfall, temperature, radiation and derived variables to avoid some abiotic stresses.Deployment of genetically resistant varieties is the most effective and durable approach to integrated disease management, while focusing on yield, height, grain quality, market opportunity, and seed availability.For pre-harvest sprouting (PHS), the development of mung bean varieties with short (10-15 days) fresh seed dormancy (FSD) is important to reduce losses due to PHS.

Market

The mung bean plant has a long history of being eaten by humans.The main parts consumed are seeds and sprouts. Ripe seeds provide a valuable source of digestible protein for humans where meat is scarce or where people are mostly vegetarian.Mung beans have a large market in Asia (India, Southeast Asia, and East Asia) and are also consumed in Southern Europe and the southern United States.Mung bean protein is considered a safe Novel Food (NF) according to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283.Mung bean consumption varies by geographic region.For example, in India mung beans are used in sweets, snacks and savory foods.In other parts of Asia, it is used to make cakes, bean sprouts, noodles, and soups.It is mainly used as fresh bean sprouts in Europe and America. Mung bean consumption in the United States is approximately 22–29 g per capita per year while consumption in certain parts of Asia can be as high as 2 kg per capita per year.

Mung beans are considered an alternative crop in many areas and it is generally best to contract the growing process prior to planting. In the United States,mung beans cost an average of about $0.20 per pound.That's twice the price of soybeans.The difference in production costs between mung beans and soybeans is post-harvest cleaning and/or transportation.Overall, mung beans are considered to have market potential due to their drought tolerance, and the fact that they are a food crop rather than a feed crop, which helps farmers mitigate economic risk from commodity crop price volatility.