Here in Eastern Indonesia Velvet bean is known as the Evil bean- Kacang jahat. It is rampant and a really different plant to the well known and useful bean of the tropical ag literature.
So what makes this so nasty?
The pods have fine hairs that are extremely itchy when you get them anywhere near your skin. Really nasty. Locals assure us that goats and pigs can die when they graze plants with 
mature, black pods.
The plant is extremely vigorous, climbing large trees and covering large areas of land.
When there are no pods, farmers need to be encouraged to graze it and use it as a green manure. The problem is that villagers seem to fear it, whether it has pods or not.
We are using it in zai holes – in situ compost holes – as a way of increasing fertility naturally for crops like watermelon, brassicas and tomatoes.
Simple, farmer led experiments, will show how useful it is.
While in New Zealand I talked with Mike Davies who suggested using a long handled slasher to cut this down without it’s pods causing irritation for farmers. We will try this. (A long handled slasher is a bit like a bush knife with a long stick attached- time will tell how helpful this is).