It is thus clear that soybean and other grain legumes combat severe nutritional deficiency and enhance household food security thereby playing a critical role in nutrition as a basis for food supply and healthy diets, and thus averting a major threat to the nation’s growth and development.Ī recent study on the Cost of Hunger (Coha) shows that Malawi loses 10.3 percent of its GDP every year due to under-nutrition, posing a major threat to the nation’s growth and development. This high protein value crop is also currently being processed for breakfast cereal for infants and HIV and Aids survivors, additives for meat, bakery, and animal feed, for soy milk, and for the manufacture of soap.Īnd beans, particularly sugar beans (Kholophethe) are high in demand and grown in many areas throughout the country because beans are very valuable to farmers as they provide the much-needed proteins to Malawian families, especially those in the rural areas where income is low and many people cannot afford to buy animal proteins. This compliments carbohydrate-dominated diets such as maize. In addition to nutritious weaning foods, whole soybeans can form important ingredients in recipes for preparing adult meals. It also consists 20 percent oil, which makes it the most important crop for producing edible oil, probably a reason why several companies in the country are producing soy cooking oils now, a relatively cheaper oil for many homes.
Soybean consists of more than 36 percent protein, 30 percent carbohydrates, and excellent amounts of dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Nutritionists contend that soybean, like many other grain legumes, combat severe nutritional deficiency and enhances household food security. Reports by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security indicate that soybean has been grown in Malawi since 1909.
Legumes such as soybean are not new crops in Malawi. The national demand was at 111,000 metric tonnes, which caused the farmers to increase their production areas. The results indicate that introduction of cowpea in the Delmarva region could play an important role in replacing some of the areas currently being used for corn and soybean production, an important source of vegetable proteins to many ethnic groups in the area, play an important role as an alternative crop, improve soil fertility to sustain crop production, and also to serve as an insurance crop, especially during drought years in the Delmarva region.In 2011, the Ministry of Agriculture reported that the national production of soybean over 10 years had been growing at about 4.6 percent per year. Soils in the Delmarva region are sandy, prone to drought but support corn and soybean which are the major crops in the region. Genotypes Quickpick Pinkeye and Elite were found to be early maturing and might escape the terminal drought. The highest biological yield was provided by genotypes Champion, White Acre and California Blackeye 5 making these genotypes good candidates to be used for green manuring or as cover crops in the region. Genotypes Colossus, Mississippi Silver and California Blackeye 5 gave significantly higher seed yields. Results showed significant differences in grain and biological yields of various genotypes.
Cowpea genotypes were grown for two seasons and the parameters evaluated mostly included grain yield, biological yield, flowering and maturity dates. Field experiments were conducted to determine the possibility of growing cowpea as an alternative crop in the cropping system of the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia (Delmarva) region of the United States.
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