Defend Your Beans! Quiz

Boost your knowledge about field bean crop protection strategies, including pests, diseases, and best-practices for healthy harvests. Learn key techniques farmers use to safeguard field beans from key threats.

1. Common Field Bean Pest

   Which insect pest is most commonly associated with yield loss in field bean crops due to its larval feeding on pods and seeds?

   1. Stem borer
   2. Leaf cutter ant
   3. Corn earworm
   4. Pod borer

   Explanation: Pod borer larvae penetrate and consume the developing pods and seeds, causing significant yield loss in field beans. Stem borers usually target cereal stems, not beans. Leaf cutter ants may defoliate plants but are less significant for pod or seed damage. Corn earworm affects a different crop primarily, not field beans.

2. Fungal Infection Symptoms

   A field bean farmer observes brown patches with concentric rings on leaves after heavy rains; which fungal disease is most likely?

   1. Rust
   2. Powdery mildew
   3. Bacterial blight
   4. Cercospora leaf spot

   Explanation: Cercospora leaf spot is characterized by brownish lesions with concentric circles, typically after wet conditions. Powdery mildew shows white powdery spots. Rust produces orange or reddish pustules. Bacterial blight results in water-soaked lesions, not concentric rings.

3. Best Weed Management Timing

   What is the optimal stage for the first manual weeding in a field bean crop to minimize competition for nutrients and water?

   1. 20–25 days after sowing
   2. At flowering stage
   3. Just before harvest
   4. 40–45 days after sowing

   Explanation: Weeding at 20–25 days after sowing removes early-emerging weeds, preventing competition during critical early growth. Waiting until 40–45 days or flowering may allow weeds to already harm yields. Weeding right before harvest is too late to impact crop competition.

4. Cultural Disease Management

   How can crop rotation help manage soil-borne diseases in field bean cultivation?

   1. Attracts more pollinators
   2. Increases nitrogen immediately
   3. Promotes deeper root growth
   4. Reduces pathogen buildup by breaking life cycles

   Explanation: Rotating crops disrupts the survival of disease organisms specific to beans by denying them a continuous host, reducing infection rates. Crop rotation doesn't directly increase nitrogen, attract extra pollinators, or specifically encourage deeper roots compared to continuous cropping.

5. Safe Chemical Use Principle

   Why is it recommended to apply chemical insecticides to field beans only when pest counts exceed the economic threshold level?

   1. To boost plant growth directly
   2. To minimize resistance and protect beneficial insects
   3. Because higher doses work better
   4. So all insects are eliminated

   Explanation: Applying chemicals only when necessary helps slow pest resistance development and conserves beneficial insect populations. Pesticides don't promote plant growth directly, higher doses can harm crops, and eradication of all insects is neither practical nor ecologically sound.