Abstract
In South Africa, the dry bean is planted mostly for human consumption. The study assessed the growth rate and instability of area, production, yield, consumption, import and export of dry beans in South Africa from 1970 to 2019. The exponential model was used to estimate the growth of area, production, yield, consumption, import and export of dry beans in South Africa. The Cuddy-Della Valle index was used to estimate variability. The study indicated that a 50-year average on area, production and export of dry beans in South Africa had a 1.497%, 0.472% and 0.282% reduction in growth rate, respectively, while yield, consumption and import resulted in a 1.040%, 1.880% and 7.443% increase, respectively. There is a need to increase the area under dry bean production through mobilisation of small-scale farmers to venture into dry bean production and research, in order to come up with high-yielding and drought-tolerant dry bean varieties in South Africa. The study also recommends that the government should formulate appropriate policies for mechanisation, production and export which will support the development of the dry bean industry.