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Introductiion

Introduction:

Scientific Name : Glycine max (L.) Merr.
Family : Fabaceae
Centre of Origin : China


 Soybean can be treated as oilseed as well as pulse crop with highest percentage of protein among all pulses. It is the only pulse crop that contains 20% of oil in the seed. That’s why soybean is also regarded as potential oil yielding crop. It contributes 1/3rd amount of total oil produced in the world. Varieties of products Are prepared from Soybean, such as Soya milk, Soya Cheese, Soya flecks for breakfast, fermented soybean as “Kinema”, Soya biscuits as nuggets, and eaten in the form of boiled soybean pod or roasted beans especially for the children. It is being reported medically that by its regular consumption, helps to reduce cardiac disorders due to presence of abundant poly unsaturated fatty acid in Soya oil.

Generally rice and soybean are cultivated during kharif season, so it becomes an optional crop as the farmers has to decide the type of crop to be selected. But in hilly areas of Sikkim where rice production is low, soybean may be a profitable crop for these areas.

Composition : It has been mentioned earlier that soybean is rich source of different nutrient and regarded as potential oil yielding pulse crop. Following are the composition of soybean:

Nutrient Food Value
Protein 40%
Water 8%
Oil 20%
Carbohydrate 31.3
Others 0.7%
Energy 335 Calorie/100 gm soybean
Car'w 208 mg/100 gm soybean
Riboflavin 6.5 mg/100 gm soybean
Nicotinic acid 2.1 mg/100 gm soybean

Botany: Soybean belongs to family fabaxeae and sub-family papilionaceae. The soybean is an erect, bushy annual plant of great morphological diversity. The important morphological characters are described below:

Root: Soybean consists of tap root formed by the radical. Numerous secondary roots, arranged in four rows along the tap root, and several highly branched adventitious roots arising from lower portion of the hypocotyls are found in soybean plants, however, tap root has somewhat larger diameter. The root consists of nodules on their surface which are visible about 10 days after sowing and the root system becomes extensively nodulated at maturity. The depth of root system becomes extensively nodulated at maturity. The depth of root system depends upon soil type and cultural practices viz. in open soil types the tap roots may go as deep as 2 meters and the laterals up to 2.5 meters.

Stem: Stems are formed as a result of hypocotyls elongation of the seed axis which forms the lower portion of the stem. The height of stem and its branching habit depends upon variety. The forage types are very profusely branched with long prostate or horizontal creeping branches whereas they are short and erect in grain types. The stems are hairy or purbescent due to which they look whitish in color and the hairs remain throughout life cycle of the plant.

Leaves: Soybean has four different types of leaves- (i) cotyledons or seed leaves which emerge with seedlings, (ii) two simple primary leaves, (iii) trifoliate leaves, and about (iv) the prophyllus. Primary leaves are essentially oval in shape having petiole of about 1-2 cm length. All the leaves have pinnate venation. Simple primary leaves and seed leaves are arranged opposite while trifoliates are alternatively arranged on the stem. Each of the leaves has a pair of stipules at its base. The leaflets of trifoliate leave have glabrous and pubescent, though the extent of pubescence varies according to varieties. The fourth types of leaves are very tiny paired prophylls that are present at the base of each lateral branch. Inflorescence:

Two types of flowering have been observed in case of soybean- first type in case of indeterminate stems, in which the terminal bud continues to grow and produce axillary raceme type of inflorescence.in this case the pods are evenly distributed on the branches with a diminishing frequency towards the tops of the stems. The second type is in the determinate stems in which the growth of terminal bud ceases when it becomes an inflorescence. This type of stems have both axillary and terminal racemes and pods are found in dense clusters along the stems.

Flowers: Soybean flower is a typical papilionaceous flower with a tubular calyx of five unequal lobes, a five parted corolla that has a large posterior banner petal, two lateral wing petals and two anterior keel petals that are in contact but are not fused. The stamens compose a typical diadelphous androecium in which the filaments of nine of the stamens are fused and elevated as a single structure with a posteriuor stamen remaining separate. By the time of pollination the diadelphous stamens have been elevated to a position so that the anthers form a ring around the stigma. pollen thus is shed directly on the stigma, resulting in a high percentage of self fertilization. Natural crossing varies from less than 0.5 to about 1 percent. pollination may occur the day before full opening of the flower i.e it takesplace within the bud.

Pods: Soybean pods are straight or slightly curved and vary in length from less than 2 cm upto 7cm or more in some varieties. The pod color at maturity varies from light yellow to yellow-grey, brown or black depending upon extent of carotene and xanthophylls pigments present on them. The number of pods varies from two to more than 20 on a single inflorescence and up to 400 on a single plant.

Seeds: The seeds are matured ovules development in pods. The fully developed seeds are formed after 35 to 45 days of blooming. The seeds continue to lose moisture, they change elongate rainform shape to more oval or spherical shape.

Uses: Soybean can be used for various purposes. The following are uses of soybean:

a) Broken grain:

  • The broken grain of soybean is used as food material for cattle, birds, fish, honey bees etc.
  • It is used for the preparation of different items like noodles, food drinks, candy, etc.
  • For the preparation of alcohol.

b) Soybean oil:

  • IT is used for culinary purposes. It is also used for margarine, pharmaceuticals, sandwich spreads, and coffee whitener’s purposes.
  • Soybean oil is used for the preparation of soap, pesticides, fungicides, weedicides, cement etc.

c) Soybean grain:

  • As seed,
  • As food for birds, cattle etc.
  • For bakery items, candy etc.

d) Soybean plant:

Soybean plant is sometimes used as cattle feed