Project report for Soybean Cultivation

Soybean is a legume crop, yet it is widely used as oilseed. Due to very poor cook ability and digestibility on account of inherent presence of trypsin inhibitor, it cannot be utilized as a pulse. It is now the second largest oilseed in India after groundnut. The leading producer of soybean in India is Madhya Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Since 2013, soybeans have been more profitable than corn, albeit at much lower levels. From 2014 to 2018, farmer returns averaged INR 2,240 per acre for corn and INR 4,778 per acre for soybeans. A number of private sector companies are active in agriculture and agri-business, directly engaging with the farmers and improving their farm incomes. While most of these initiatives are successful, they are limited to specific geographical regions, crops and limited number of farmers. Due to its de popularity, the international trade of Soybean is spread several countries such as Japan, China, Indonesia, Philippines, and European countries are importing Soybean to supplement their domestic requirement for human consumption and cattle feed. Soybean has great potential as an exceptionally nutritive and very rich protein food.

Growth of soybean revealed that growth in soybean production in the country was mainly on account of changes in area and there was negligible effect of growth on yield. The net returns from cultivation of soybean in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan were higher compared to other Kharif crops except Arhar and cotton. In the recent past, Soybean cultivation has increased many folds as compared to any other oil seed crop in the country and stands next to Groundnut, though commercial production of Soybean began in 1971-72. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan accounted for 56 percent, 35 percent and 5 percent production respectively during the year 2002-03 covering an area of 67 percent, 21 percent and 8 percent in India. Increased production of India's main summer-sown oilseed could help the world's biggest vegetable oil importer trim costly purchases of palm oil, soy oil and sunflower oil from Indonesia, Malaysia, Argentina and Ukraine. It could also boost Indian exports of animal feed ingredient soymeal to places such as Bangladesh, Japan, Vietnam and Iran, industry officials said. India harvested 12.9 million MT of soybean in MY 2020-21, planted area under soybean was at 12.2 million hectares in 2021-22, slightly higher than 12.1 million hectares in 2020-21.