Soya beans is a crop that belongs to the same family as beans, groundnuts, sunflower, tomato, eggplants and many more. It is a crop native/indigenous to East Asia (China), which is one of the five oldest crops cultivated by the Chinese for food before 2500 BC.
They are
collectively called leguminous
crops. Unlike maize, the bulk of soya beans consumed in Zambia are grown by the
commercial farmers and some of the emergent farmers. Though, it is a crop that
is not too difficult to grow, if one judiciously follows its requirements. It
is not by design that small-holder farmers don't grow much of it, but for some
reasons that have to do with the way it is marketed.
Climatic and Soil Requirements
It is a crop
that can be grown in a wide range of soils, though it does very well in deep
well drained sandy loam to clay loam. For economic yields, avoid growing it in
sandy soils. However, the soils should also not have a pH less than 5.6. pH is a
scale on which we measure soil condition in terms of acidity. The scale is from
0 to 14, with values near zero being very acidic while the opposite is true for
14. Soils that have pH 7 are neither acidic nor alkaline, they are said to be
neutral, 0 to 6.9 is very acidic to slightly acidic while 7.0 is neutral and
7.1 to 14 is slightly basic to very basic).
Preferably,
soils are recommended to have a pH range of 5.5 to around 7.1 because that is
the range which promotes most crop production. Thought I should mention that it
is relatively cheaper to reclaim a soil that is acidic unlike one which has
higher pH values, and luckily enough most lands in Zambia have soils that are
acidic especially in region III. The topic of soil acidity will be dealt with
later in the future articles.
Therefore,
the range of 5.6 to around 7.1 would be the ideal range for our soya beans
production. The problems with soils that are very acidic are that some elements
that are important for soya beans growth will not be in the unavailable form
for the crop to access them.
One of the
elements which are critical for soya beans growth is phosphorus and at very low
pH, it is found in amounts that are not available to the crop (complexed form
or fixed in soils. I will not delve into the science behind the availability as
this could be too detailed for this space. Some people might be tempted to say
even if the soil is quite acidic (lower than 5); I will apply too much
fertiliser. My advice to such lines of thinking is that you are just wasting
your resources because it is like putting one table spoon of sugar in five
litres of water and expecting the solution to be as sweet as zig (sugar
solution).
However, for
some farmers that might be found in soils that are in such conditions, the
remedy is to apply lime (mind you, one can find very acidic soils even in
region I, it doesn't just come about due to high rainfall but also the
agricultural practices such as continual application of acidifying fertilisers
like urea and ammonium nitrates for a very long time without liming. This crop
also needs rainfall ranges of between 500 millimetres to around 1000 millimetres
depending on the variety that one wants to plant. The rainfall has to be well
distributed.
The crop
also needs a frost-free season and do not need to be grown in areas where
temperatures go beyond 400C for a long time. With this information,
you will see that it can be grown in a wide geographical coverage of Zambia. In
areas where rainfall is not well-distributed and falls on the lower bracket,
irrigation can supplement its growth if one can afford.
Advice by Soya
Tech Zambia
The other
very cardinal point to note is that some varieties do shatter (explode when
they are mature) while others take long or may not at all. This is a very
important characteristic to know because if one plants a shattering variety and
goes in late to harvest, they will have high losses.
Note: The Demand for soybeans has increased at almost four times the pace of
population growth in the past decade.
i.
About 66% of all soybeans
grown are used in livestock and poultry feed.
ii.
About 16% becomes vegetable
oil for cooking or biofuel.
iii.
Around 18% is processed
directly into food, without morphing into meat, milk and eggs first.
iv.
China has a voracious
appetite for soybeans, buying one in every five soybeans grown on the planet.
Of the million tonnes of soybeans grown, China purchases million tonnes of it.
All this is
good news for farmers in Southern Africa who are now finishing their soybean
harvest.
Growing Soya
Beans First Year According to Sebastian Scott, a Seasoned Farmer
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a) You will want to grow soya beans on 75 or 90cm rows and the best variety
I have come across for planting in the first year is Zamseed Lukanga. In
subsequent years, different varieties may do better.
Planting soya beans can be done on ridges or flat land. You can also use
conservation methods in planting this crop and the plant specification depends
on the level of management one will implore. However, farmers should not plant
less than 60 kilogrammes per hectare if one wants to get near the yield
potentials of most varieties.
b) The recommended rates for most of the varieties are around 80 to 100
kilogrammes of seed per hectare, that's approximately one seed every 4cm in the
row when planted at 75cm between rows and approx. one seed every 3cm when
planted on 90cm rows. Planting depth - between 2 and 3cm. And the newly
released varieties have yield potential of between 3.0 to about 6.0 tonnes per
hectare as compared to old varieties that would yield around 1.5 tonnes. Mind
you, if you want more money in your pockets, you need to plant improved
varieties that will give you maximum yields.
Best time to plant this specific variety is between the first and third week of
December. Yield - depends on many factors!
c) At planting, I would advise you to use inoculum with some sort of
molybdenum source such as molyflo-t, you can get this from MRI, it's 65 kwacha
or so, enough to treat 25kg seed, so you will get about 4 packets to cover 1
Hectare. Inoculum is not fertiliser but these are small living things (bacteria
-harmless to people) which when well applied will help soya beans use the
atmospheric nitrogen and convert it into nitrates. We all know that nitrogen is
one of the most important macro nutrients needed for not only soya beans growth
but even other crops. A word of caution is that this inoculum should not be
used to substitute the fertiliser because then we shall starve the plant off
other necessary nutrients like phosphorus, potassium, boron and many others.
d) I would also advise you to apply some lime, approx. 6 x 50kg bags per ha
(this will be approx. 1 baked bean tin of lime to cover 40 meters of row) along
the row, after planting if you're using a planter or alternatively, you can
make rip-lines using either oxen or a tractor or simply draw a hoe through the
soil to make a furrow. Try to get the lines straight!
e) In the first year it is also advisable to add some kind of nutrients. I
would recommend the use of a small amount of manure applied in the rip line
before planting or in the row during planting if you are using the planter. I
use approx. 40 bags of chicken manure or 80 bags of cattle manure per Ha on
soya, however it is important not to pay too much for it (5k per 50kg bag or
so) and transport can be expensive. Make sure you cover the manure when you
apply it in the field and don't place too much too close to the seed or you may
burn the seed. The other option is to use 2 bags of D-compound per Ha.
Companion
Plants
Potatoes,
cucumbers, corn, strawberries, celery, maize, summer savoury. Do not plant
soybeans with onion or garlic.
Weed Control
Young
seedlings are unable to compete with many fast-growing weeds and their control
at this stage is very important. Chemical control can be used but it needs special
attention because there can be a toxic interaction between herbicides/insecticides
used in the previous season and those applied to the current crop. Wide spectrum
soy bean herbicides are registered for pre-plant, pre-emergence and
post-emergence application. The types of weeds that are predominant will tell
what kind of herbicide to apply, is it broad leaves or grass? In 2005, I
remember visiting a farmer who was complaining that the herbicide he had
applied was not effective as the weeds where not killed, and when we went into
his field to verify, he was right. After a thorough inspection and questioning,
it was learnt that the farmer had applied the right type of herbicide but in a
wrong type of soil.
Pest and
Disease Control
Soya beans
are susceptible to various viral and fungal diseases caused by different pathogens.
Insects that may cause damage to soy beans are cutworms at emergence, soy bean
loopers; various worms and green stinkbug during pod development. Integrated pests
and disease management mechanisms can be used to control the pests and
diseases.
There are
some herbicides that can be sprayed before germination and others that can be
sprayed after germination (over the soya beans). Farmers need to visit various
chemical companies to be advised on what kind and type of herbicides to use on
particular soils.
The clay
content will determine what type of herbicide to apply and what rates, this was
not followed. Just like people, soya beans are living things and they can get
diseases and die. There are so many diseases that affect soya beans but the
disease infestation is not so much pronounced with the small-holders as it is
with the commercial farmers.
The one
major reason for the disparity is that commercial farmers follow intensive type
of cultivation due to limited land unlike small-holder farmers who may leave
some land furrow for some time (however, small-holder farmers must also
practise better land management as taught by our colleagues from CFU-Zambia
limited).
It is
affected by both fungal and bacterial diseases such as rust, powdery mildew,
and bacterial blight, red leaf blotch and others. There are also several pests
that affect soybeans, such as caterpillars, aphids, cutworms and birds.
There are
some chemicals that may be used to control these except for birds (please avoid
baiting birds as you may end up killing other people, just scare them away).
The best
preventive measure to control pests and diseases is to follow what I call field
hygiene - which starts with proper crop rotation, physical barriers and use of
chemicals. Soybeans are rarely attacked by disease. Rotate beans so that they
do not grow in the same location more than every three years.
A delay in
harvesting soya beans can result in serious loss due to shattering. Harvesting
should commence when most of the leaves have been shed and the moisture content
of the seed falls below 15% but while the stems are still pliable. 90% of the
pods will turn brown and shatter easily and kernels will not yet be dry enough
to break. This can be done through moisture testing. Otherwise, experienced
producers can detect maturity by the colour of the pods and the shattering
ability. When soya beans are ready for harvesting, pods will turn brown and
shatter easily and the kernels will not yet be dry enough to break.
Pods
normally shatter when ripe, releasing the seeds, the rate and degree of
shattering being dependent on varietal characteristics, and early or high
shattering characteristics are detrimental in types harvested mechanically.
Harvesting
Methods
Soya beans
are not suited to hand harvesting, stacking or wind rowing. The recommended
harvesting method is to use a combine harvester fitted with either a soya bean
or wheat table. Self-propelled combines with a reasonable capacity should be
able to harvest 14 hectares a day. When combining soya beans, a slow drum speed
(450 - 500 revolutions per minute) is required. The concaves must be set wider
than for wheat and a slow ground speed (approximately 6km/h) must be used. The
faster the drum speed, the more splits will occur. To further minimise losses,
the combine must be adjusted as low as possible. The combine must cut the
plants as close to the soil surface as possible in order to minimise the number
of pods left behind. The maturity period is fairly short and the availability
of harvesting equipment is therefore crucial, especially when unfavourable
weather conditions may be expected during the harvesting period.
Crop
Utilisation
1.
Human
consumption:
Seeds
furnish one of the world’s most important sources of oil and protein. Unripe
seeds are eaten as a vegetable and dried seeds are eaten whole, split or
sprouted. Processed, they give soy milk, a valuable protein supplement in
infant feeding, which also provides curds and cheese. Soy sauce, made from the
mature fermented beans, and soy are ingredients in other sauces. Roasted seeds
are used as a coffee substitute or can be used to make soy flour.
2.
Industrial uses:
Oil is used
industrially in the manufacturing of paints, linoleum, oilcloth, printing inks,
soap, insecticides and disinfectants. Lecithin phospholipids are obtained as a
by-product of the oil industry and are used as a wetting and stabilising agent
in the food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, leather, paint, plastic and detergent industries.
Soy bean meal is used in the manufacturing of synthetic fibre, adhesives,
textile sizing; waterproofing, fire-fighting foam and for many other purposes.
The straw can be used to make paper stiffer than that made from wheat straw.
3.
Animal feed:
The larger
consumer of protein-rich meal in South Africa is represented by the poultry
industry, especially the broiler industry, which has a high demand for quality
protein. Soy meal is a very rich protein feed for livestock and there is an
increasing demand for it. The vegetative portions of plants are used for silage,
hay, pasture or fodder, or may be ploughed back into the soil as a green
manure.
References
1.
http://www.nda.agric.za/docs/brochures/soya-beans.pdf
2.
http://www.nda.agric.za/docs/Brochures/SoyBean.pdf
3. Sebastian Scott – Zambian Farmer
4. Soya Tech Zambia
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