Arka Anoop
An ICAR-IIHR bush bean recommended for all of India, resistant to rust and bacterial blight. Pods are long (17–18 cm), flat and straight, at 20 t/ha in the national checklist.
Quick facts
- Crop
- French Bean
- Type
- Bush type
- Season
- Rabi
- Maturity period
- No separate days-to-first-pick figure is published
- Seed rate
- 60–80 kg/ha (about 24–32 kg/acre) for a bush bean
- Expected yield
- 20 t/ha green pods
- Suitable soil
- Loam
- Disease resistance
- Resistant to rust and bacterial blight
- Release
- Released by ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru. Listed in the national checklist as recommended for all of India.
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
About this variety
Arka Anoop is a bushy, photo-insensitive French bean from ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru. It is a bush type and needs no stakes. The pods are long, 17 to 18 cm, flat and straight. The national vegetable checklist recommends it for all of India and gives a pod yield of 20 t/ha. It is resistant to both rust and bacterial blight, which IIHR also reports. In a Karnataka farmer's fields near Bengaluru it averaged 17.4 t/ha over three years, the best of the three Arka beans she grew.
Should you pick this variety?
Choose Arka Anoop if rust or bacterial blight has damaged your beans before. It is the one bush bean here listed as resistant to both, it is recommended for all of India, and it gave the best yield of the three Arka beans on a Bengaluru farm (17.4 t/ha over three years). Choose Pusa Parvati (22.5 t/ha) if mosaic and powdery mildew are the problem instead, and Arka Suvidha if you want stringless, fleshy pods.
Sowing & cultivation
- Sowing timePhoto-insensitive, so it can be sown in more than one season. Mid-October to November for the plains rabi crop
- Seed rate60–80 kg/ha (about 24–32 kg/acre) for a bush bean
- SpacingRows 30–45 cm apart, plants 8–10 cm apart in the row. No stakes needed
Soil & climate
Soil
- pH
- 5.5–6.8
Climate
- Temperature
- 20–25°C for growth and pod yield
Advantages & considerations
Why farmers may choose it
- Resistant to rust and bacterial blight, two diseases that cost French bean farmers a lot.
- Recommended for all of India, with a listed yield of 20 t/ha.
- In a three-year farm record near Bengaluru, it gave the best yield of the three Arka beans (17.4 t/ha).
- A bush bean, so no stakes or trellis are needed.
Things to consider
- No days-to-first-pick figure is published for it. Plan from your own first sowing and note the date.
- Its resistance covers rust and bacterial blight. It is not listed as resistant to mosaic or powdery mildew, which Pusa Parvati covers.
- It is flat-podded, so check that your market takes flat pods and not round ones.
Suitable regions
States this variety is recommended for — check locally, since a state can have more than one recommended zone.
- Karnataka
Where rust and bacterial blight are the problem, start here
Most French bean varieties compared here list resistance to mosaic and powdery mildew, if they list any. Arka Anoop is the one listed for rust and bacterial blight.
So decide by your own field history. If your beans have shown orange-brown rust pustules on the leaves, or water-soaked leaf spots that turn brown with a yellow edge in wet weather, Arka Anoop is the variety built for it. If your problem is a yellow-green mottled leaf, which is mosaic, or a white powder on the leaf, which is powdery mildew, look at Pusa Parvati.
Resistance is not a licence to skip the basics. Use certified seed, rotate away from beans for a season, and do not work in the field when the leaves are wet.
Can you keep your own planting material?
This is an open-pollinated variety, so seed from a healthy crop of your own can be sown again. Keep seed only from disease-free plants, dry it properly, store it cool and dry, and bring in fresh certified seed every three to four years so the variety does not drift.
How it compares with other varieties
Every French Bean variety with a page on this site, side by side. The row for this page is highlighted.
| Variety | Best for | Maturity | Yield | States |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arka Anoopthis page | The disease-resistant Arka bean: rust and bacterial blight | No separate days-to-first-pick figure is published | 20 t/ha green pods | Karnataka |
| Arka Komal | A flat-podded bush bean that travels well, with an optional dry-seed crop | First pick about 70–75 days (IIHR variety list) | 20 t/ha pods, or 1,500 kg/ha dry seed | Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala |
| Arka Suvidha | A stringless, fleshy-podded bean that earns a better price | First pick about 70–75 days (IIHR variety list) | 19 t/ha green pods | Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir |
| Contender | An early, widely adapted bush bean for the plains' autumn sowing | First picking in about 50 days | 20 t/ha green pods (200 q/ha) | Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka |
| Kentucky Wonder | A climbing heirloom bean for gardens that already have supports | Seed sellers list 58–72 days to first picking; picking then continues for weeks | No Indian public trial figure is published | Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka |
| Pant Anupama | A resistant bush bean for the hills and tarai, grown for pod quality, not for yield | First picking in 55–65 days after sowing | 9 t/ha green pods (90 q/ha) | Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand |
| Pusa Parvati | The highest-yielding Indian bush bean here, with mosaic and powdery mildew resistance | First picking in about 50 days | 22.5 t/ha green pods (225 q/ha) | Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana |
Tools for this crop
The numbers you need next: how much seed to buy, whether the lot germinates, what the fertilizer bill looks like and what French Bean is selling for.
- Seed Rate CalculatorHow much seed your French Bean plot needs, corrected for the germination of the lot you bought.
- Germination CalculatorTest 100 seeds from the bag before sowing and see whether the lot is fit to sow.
- Seed Variety FinderFilter every French Bean variety on this site by state, season, duration and soil.
- Fertilizer CalculatorTurn the NPK recommendation for French Bean into bags of urea, DAP and MOP for your field size.
- Crop CalendarMonth-by-month sowing, weeding, irrigation and harvest dates for French Bean in your state.
- Crop Profit CalculatorPut your seed, labour and input costs against the yield you expect from this variety.
- Mandi Price CheckerToday's French Bean rate in your nearest mandi, before you fix a price with a trader.
Subsidy and government support
Schemes that help with the cost of French Bean seed or planting material. Rules and the application route are on each scheme page.
Frequently asked questions
Is Arka Anoop a pole bean that needs stakes?
No. The national checklist and IIHR describe it as a bushy plant that is photo-insensitive, so it grows without stakes or a trellis. If a seed packet says it is a climber, check the variety name with the dealer.
Which diseases is Arka Anoop resistant to?
Rust and bacterial blight, per the national checklist, and IIHR reports the same. No resistance to mosaic, powdery mildew or anthracnose is listed. Use certified seed, because bacterial blight and anthracnose travel in the seed.
What yield can I expect from Arka Anoop?
The national checklist lists 20 t/ha. On a farm near Bengaluru, a grower averaged 17.4 t/ha over three years, which is 6,960 kg per acre in her own report. Budget near the farm figure.
What do the pods look like?
Long, 17 to 18 cm, flat and straight, per the national checklist. In the farmer's experience it also has good cooking quality. It fetched the same price as Arka Komal (Rs 10 a kilo), a little below stringless Arka Suvidha (Rs 11).
Sourced from: Checklist of Commercial Varieties of Vegetables — TNAU Agritech Portal (national bulletin), Success story of an innovative vegetable farmer, Karnataka — ICAR-IIHR. editorial policy.