| Brief Introduction | Knowledge for Health | Harvest | Industry | Products | Wandan, South of Taiwan |
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| Precious Red Bean-Red Bean Introduction |
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| Red bean, native to China, is a leguminous annual plant. Since 1971, they have been planted up to ten thousand hectares in Taiwan, with quality and color comparable to Japanese ones. After exported to Japan successfully, the cultivation underwent a sharp increase up to 19,600 hectares in 1978. However, since Chinese red beans were sold to Japan, the Taiwanese export has been dwindling and comes to a full stop now. Red beans are currently tariff-rationed imported crops, mainly produced in southern areas. After we joined the WTO, they are grown to supply the domestic market, and maintained at 5,000 hectares to avoid risk of overproduction. Cultivated in autumn to be in good quality and quantity, red beans are mainly used in sweets, like red bean paste, red bean soup, canned red beans, yokan, amanatto, red bean ice and so on. |
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| Although in most grounds grow red beans, soils with good water retention, draining, and phosphorus, potassium, calcium, humus are most suitable. However, over alkaline or acidic soils are not. They are not flooding tolerant, but have high yield in rotation cultivation. Neither are they cold tolerant, subject to cold current and frostbite. Areas in the western coast are not suitable for their production. Red beans in Chia-nan area are planted by soil preparation and bedding, with 5 to 6 kilogram seeds per subdivision. Farmers in Kao-ping Area plant red beans without soil preparation. To reach high yield and easy mechanical harvesting, they should be kept 50 plants every square meter. |
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