Traditional technologies in soybean cultivation in Madhya Pradesh

Abstract

This paper reports the age-old technologies followed by soybean growers in Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh contributes about 67 & 56% in total area and production of soybean, respectively in the country. Soybean is known to Indians since ages as food plant and was in cultivation in hills of Kumaon and Garhwal region of Uttaranchal state, foothills of Himalayan and scattered pockets of central India. Historical records, however, reveals that small seeded black soybean was in cultivation in central province, somewhere in 1882 at Nagpur.<br> Soybean was introduced at Adhartal farm (Jabalpur) during 1935-36 and in 1937-38 at Hoshangabad district in Madhya Pradesh. Since then the soybean is being grown in the farmers field. The farmers practice a large number of production technologies developed by different research organization. Added to this, 34 traditional practices followed by soybean growers in Madhya Pradesh have been reported in many secondary sources of data collection. Traditional technologies adopted by 100 farmers of Indore, Dewas and Jhabua districts of Madhya Pradesh have been documented in the present work. Of these, 16 traditional technologies or practices are being practiced by more than one third of total respondents. Small and marginal farmers, in spite of introduction of improved technologies, commonly resort to few traditional technologies. This calls for renewed thrust to disseminate the blend of effective, cheap and eco-friendly indigenous traditional practices with modern technologies in agriculture to provide sustainability to their fragmented holdings.