Pest-resistant, high yielding and full of beans!
Come next kharif season and Indian farmers will be able to sow a new variety of soybean that grows fast, uses less water and has a higher yield. And the credit goes to scientists of Pune-based Agharkar Research Institute and the Indian Council of Agriculture Research.
Soybean is widely cultivated as oil seeds. Photo: Pixabay
There is cheer for soybean farmers as Indian scientists come up with a pest-resistant variety. Not only will this variety of soybean called MACS 1407, free them from anxiety about pest attacks, it will also save them expenditure on pesticides, and give them a better yield, assured scientists from the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune, Maharashtra.
“This new variety can be grown in many states of the country, including West Bengal, Jharkhand Chhattisgarh, Assam and the other North Eastern states,” Santosh A Jaybhay, scientist ARI, told Gaon Connection. He claimed that MACS 1407 was far superior to the variety commonly cultivated in these states, especially when it came to being pest-resistant.
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Jaybhay explained that this soybean keeps pests such as girdle beetle, leaf miner, leaf roller, stem fly, aphids, white fly and defoliator away. Moreover, the crop is ready to harvest in 104 days while the existing varieties take 130 days to get ready.
The yield is about 39 quintals per hectare as compared to the previous yield of 25 to 30 quintals per hectare, and it requires less water to cultivate, Jaybhay pointed out. He also said that this variety was particularly suitable to be cultivated in the rainfed areas of the country.
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“The ideal time to sow these beans is between June 20 to July 5 during the onset of the monsoon. And within forty three days, it flowers,” the ARI scientist explained. The flowers of the soybean are white in colour while the seeds are yellow. The soybean germinates well, and is made up of about 20 per cent oil content and 41 per cent of protein.
The ARI scientists used a cross breeding technique to come up with the MACS 1407 variant. The legume is sturdy and is conducive to being machine-harvested.
Soybean is an essential and affordable source of protein. It is widely cultivated as oil seeds as well as used in the manufacture of cattle feed and many packaged food items. In 2019, the country produced 90 million tonnes of soybean. India is trying to become the leading producer of soybean. “This high-yield and pest resistant variety can enable India to reach its goal,” Jaybhay said.
According to a press release by the Ministry of Science and Technology on April 29, the MACS 1407 soybean was recently released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, to be made available to farmers for the 2022 kharif crop of soybeans.