Soyabean

Subject: Economy

Context:

Farmers from various parts of Maharashtra have complained of germination failure of soyabean seeds.

Concept:

• Seed companies start their work for seed preparation, which involves procurement of seeds either from the farmers or growing them on their own plots, well before the season.
• Treatment of the seed with bio-fertilsers, insecticidesetc is followed by the certification process.
• During this process, germination tests are carriedout, and seeds which fail to produce 70 per cent yield and more germination, are rejected.

Reasons

• Unseasonal rain in October and November last year had affected the quality of the seed, which had put a question mark over seed availability and quality for the current season.
• The lockdown from March had also put brakes on the seed production and certification process, both in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh

Soyabean

• Soyabean is one of the fastest growing crops in India. Soyabean is grown as a Kharif Crop in India.
• Soyabean is an oilseed produced forextracting edible oils.
• Soyabean is mostly grown in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. These two states together produce about 90 per cent of total output of soyabean in the country