I first came across Mucuna, last year, as Black Velvette Bean during the Saturday Farm Tour at Solitude Farm, Auroville. Krishna McKenzie explained its benefits for controlling Parkinsons disease etc. in his inimitable style, but it went way over my head at that time.

In my search for cover crops for my no-till farming experiments, I came across this excellent blog called My Experiments with Farming where Nandakumar talks about using Mucuna as a cover crop. Interestingly Krishna McKenzie too has a video where he uses Mucuna as a cover crop which he cuts and mulches over rice seeds. Access Agriculture, is another website that I trust, which also exudes the benefits of Mucuna.

With so many good things that I heard, I decided to try it in my farm and was looking for a supplier. I initially contacted Vinayaga Pharmaceuticals, through IndiaMART, but they were quoting Rs. 220 per kg + Rs 80 for courier. I also found a neighbouring natural farmer, but he was quoting Rs. 400 per kg.

I finally ordered it from the ICAR - IIHR Seed Portal for Rs. 120 per kg with an additional postal and packaging charges of Rs. 118. This was in January 2023. The variety was marked as ARKA Dhanwantri.