Explain all sorts of leguminous crops
Answers
There is a large number of plants known as leguminous plants. Many of them are farmed, for example all the varieties of beans, peas, and groundnuts. Some are eaten, some are used as fallow crops, e.g. tephrosia and mucuna. Some leguminous crops are trees, some are shrubs (e.g. tephrosia), some are small plants not more than 10 cm in height like the groundnut.
There are two main groups of leguminous crops, those that produce mainly fat and oil, and those that produce mainly protein. Groundnuts and soya beans are grown for the oil they contain, whereas all the peas and beans supply protein.
The leguminous crops most common are beans, cowpeas, and groundouts. We shall therefore concentrate on them and leave out the rest.
Information on farming these crops is bound to be sketchy since systematic knowledge is scarce: "Generalizations on weeding, staking, earthing up, irrigation, fertilizers, labour requirements, etc. are not possible since information is only available for a few crops and only for special regions. Therefore, only some aspects of pulse (grain legumes,) growing are treated below."