a training for those involved in the production of food crops with the legume family, including farm workers, managers, and suppliers.
What can you expect from this course?
- Develop your ability to grow a greater range of pulse (legume) crops, such as various kinds of peas, beans, lupins, soybeans, chickpeas, etc.
- Choose more wisely what to plant, where to grow it, and when.
- Increase sustainability by diversifying farm production
How Legume Crops Can Benefit Agriculture
- In fact, legumes increase soil fertility. They have the capacity to raise nitrogen levels in the soil.
- Changing the types of crops planted has a positive impact on biodiversity and can help control pest and disease populations.
- Increased crop diversity helps farms diversify their sources of income. There is a lower likelihood of experiencing serious financial problems if income is sourced from many crops. Prices may remain stable or increase for a different crop when they decline for one crop.
Market Diversification for Legumes
They are the cornerstone of human meals devoid of meat because of their high protein content. Legumes including beans, peas, and other varieties are crucial parts of vegan and vegetarian diets. Even meat eaters often use them as a substantial source of protein. The addition of pulses to animal feed is highly valued. Fresh or value-added crops can be sold on or off the farm. They are either dried out or frozen to preserve them, or they are processed into a variety of goods. Consider the following: roasted pulses as a snack, peanut oil, vegetarian sausages, refried beans, chilli con carne, etc.
Lesson Structure
There are 10 lessons in this course:
- Scope and Nature of Legume Cropping
- Taxonomy of legumes
- Brief history of legume use
- Significance of Legume Crops
- Food plants for people
- Food plants for animals
- Soil improvers
- Amenity plants
- Industrial crops
- Weeds
- Legume cover crops
- Inoculation of Legumes
- Legumes today
- Shade & Salt Tolerant Cover Crops
- Peas
- Introduction
- Cultivars
- Snap Peas
- Green Peas
- Appearance
- Cultivation
- Climate
- Soil and Fertility
- Land and Seed Bed Preparation
- Planting Material
- Inoculation
- Plant Spacing
- Trellising
- Nutrient Management
- Irrigation
- Weed Control
- Harvesting
- Growing Beans
- Introduction
- Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) -Classification, Growing Conditions, Climate, Soil, Planting, Irrigation, Nutrition, Weeds, Pest and Disease
- Management
- Varieties – bush, climbing
- Harvesting
- Storage
- Runner Beans (Phaseolus coccineus) – Growing Conditions, Climate, Soil, Planting, Irrigation, Nutrition, Weeds, Pest and Disease, Varieties
- Lima Beans (Phaseolus lunatus) – Growing Conditions, Planting, Harvesting, Varieties.
- Broad Bean (Vicia faba)- Growing Conditions, Soil, Planting, Irrigation, Nutrition, Weeds, Harvesting, Crop Rotation, Pest and Disease, Varieties
- Hyacinth Bean (Lablab purpureus) – Growing Conditions, Climate, Planting, Irrigation, Nutrition, Weeds, Pest and Disease, Varieties
- Snake Bean (Vigna unguiculate ssp sesquipedalis) – Growing Conditions, Climate, Planting, Irrigation, Nutrition, Weeds, Pest and Disease
- Mung Bean (Vigna radiata) Growing Conditions, Climate, Soil, Land preparation, Sowing, Planting, Irrigation, Nutrition, Weeds, Harvesting, Drying, Storage, IPM, Pest and Disease, Land Management
- Growing Lentils
- Introduction
- Planting Lentils
- How to Plant
- Soil, Watering and Fertiliser
- Nurturing the Plants
- Diseases
- Pests
- Harvesting
- Growing Lupins
- Introduction
- Lupin plant structure -leaves, stem, branches, roots, flower, pod, seed
- Lupin Growing Cycle -germination phases
- Benefits of Lupin Crops
- Factors affecting Lupin Growth
- Seed Quality
- Sowing Lupins
- Pod Growth
- Harvesting
- Sources for seed growth
- Factors Affecting Seed Development – moisture, temperature
- Fertilisers
- Pests
- Growing Alfalfa
- Introduction
- How to grow alfalfa at home
- Lucerne Cropping
- Soil type
- Fertility Management
- Plant Variety
- Planting Crops
- Seeding Depth
- Crop Management
- Irrigation
- Disease and Insect Management
- Harvesting Lucerne
- Soybeans
- Introduction
- Planting Soybean Crops
- Modern Farming Practices (eg. Zero tilling)
- Soil Management
- Variety Selection
- Planting Soybeans
- Plant Growth and Physiology
- Nutrition and Fertiliser
- Nutritional Deficiency
- Weed Control
- Pest Control
- Harvesting Soybeans
- Growing Chickpeas
- Introduction
- Crop Preparation
- Weed Control
- Soil Preparation
- Soil Moisture
- Diseases
- Chickpea Varieties -Desi Type, Kabuli Type
- Planting Chickpeas
- Plant Growth and Physiology
- Nutrition and Fertiliser
- Harvest
- Other Legumes
- Peanut
- Inga (Ice Cream Bean)
- Tamarind
- Carob
- Acacia (Wattle seed)
- Clovers and Annual Medics
- Growing Clovers
- Clover Species
- Medics
- Processing and Using Legumes
- Introduction
- Storage Planning
- Silo Options
- Grain Storage Bags
- Bunkers
- Underground Pits
- Calculating Costs
- Variable Costs of On Farm Storage
- Aeration Cooling
- Repairs and Maintenance
- Time & Labour
- ROI Investment Analysis
- Safety
- Grain Storage and Insect Management
- Storing Lentils
- Storing Soybeans
- Storing Chickpeas
- Storing Peanuts
- Storing Faba Beans
- Storing Field Peas
Each lesson ends with an assignment that is sent in to the school, graded by the tutors there, and returned to you with any pertinent comments and suggestions—and, if necessary, additional reading—if they are applicable.
Aims
- Discuss the production of legumes for market.
- Describe the various varieties of pea plants and how to grow beans.
- Describe how to raise lupins for eating.
- Describe how to raise an alfalfa crop.
- Describe the value of and methods for raising soybean crops.
- Describe the process of growing chickpeas.
- Describe how to grow many different food crops that are legumes.
- Describe the methods used to process and use legume crops.
What You Will Do
- Do some research on the readily available legumes and goods made from them in your area.
- See videos about crops with legumes.
- Ask a close friend or relative if they eat any kind of beans and if so, which ones and why.
- Make a note of everything you can on the nutritional advantages of beans.
- Examine the effects of two micronutrients on the health of pea crops. Look for information on how these nutrients are applied excessively or insufficiently to peas.
- Learn how to sprout peas, then try it out and add some to your meals.
- See and record your sprouting project.
- Look about the significance of peas as a crop in your nation.
- Learn more online about the differences between peas chosen for various processing methods, such as fresh, canned, frozen, or dried/dehydrated.
- Ask someone who has cultivated beans for an interview.
- Take notes as you watch online footage of combine harvesters picking beans.
- Make lentils ready to eat.
- Online videos of lentil growth should be viewed and noted.
- Watch online videos about sustainable agriculture and lentil production.
- Harvest while paying attention to information on the sustainability and health of the soil. When you watch, be careful to take notes.
- Look at the value of lupins as a feed crop for animals.
- Read up on the practise of planting lucerne alongside other crops.
- Choose two lucerne-related illnesses, and conduct additional research on these two illnesses.
- Online sources for soybean suppliers in your nation.
- Search online for soy suppliers in your nation.
- Examine the various selections that are offered online.
- Examine the various varieties of chickpeas that are offered in the nearby marketplaces and grocers.
- Make a recipe with chickpeas that you have never tried. Make dhal, roasted chickpeas, hummus, power bowls, or roasted chickpeas.
- Search online for agricultural feed providers and look at their selection of clover.
- Examine the techniques for gathering peanut crops.
Online silo choices research
WHY GROW LEGUMES?
Some of the most significant agronomic crops farmed worldwide are legumes. They are eaten as side dishes of vegetables or in soups, stews, savoury pies, salads, sauces, and spreads. To get rid of toxins, fresh legumes including peas, beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, and soybeans should be soaked in water for a standard 12-hour period before cooking. Certain varieties of green peas, such as sugar snaps, can be consumed uncooked. While many beans and peas are harvested before they are fully mature and consumed fresh, there are those that are harvested at the proper time and are then dried before consumption.
Moreover, sprouted legumes are frequently consumed as microgreens. Microgreens are the young vegetable plant shoots that are consumed right after the first leaves appear on a growing plant. When moisture and temperature conditions are ideal, the food stored in the seed will be enough to trigger germination. This makes it possible to grow a sprout on a clean surface, like a tray with good drainage, without any soil. Legume sprouts are a popular raw food that is very nutrient-dense and is used in salads, stir-fries, and other dishes.
Being high in protein, legumes are perfect for vegetarian diets, which are frequently poor in protein due to the lack of meat. They can be made into synthetic meats or milled into flour that can be used in cookery. Moreover, they can be consumed as dried seeds for wholesome snacking. Furthermore rich in fibre, legumes’ slow-digesting carbs help people feel satiated for longer after eating them. They aid in lowering blood pressure and can reduce the chance of developing diabetes.
Legumes are common in organic farming because, unlike other crops, they do not deplete the soil of nitrogen. Legumes can range from short-lived annuals in meadows to shrubs and trees and can be grown as fodder for animals. Some must be avoided because of their poisons, and others are inappropriate because of their spines. These crops offer soil stabilisation and erosion prevention when cultivated as livestock fodder. Although animals have long used legumes as food in their natural habitats, cultivating them as animal fodder is a relatively new development.
Forage legumes are frequently cut up and used as animal feed. This could be a byproduct of growing legumes to harvest the grains for human use, or it could be a crop planted particularly as an animal feed or as a cover crop. The dried, pelletized, or fed to animals as hay form of these legumes. They are occasionally fermented in silage and fed to animals.
WHY SHOULD YOU TAKE THIS COURSE?
Find out more about the legumes you are already familiar with and learn about new ones.
If you work as a farmer or in another capacity in the food sector, you may want to learn this and put it to use in your profession.
You might merely be passionate about legumes or have a scholarly interest in them.
This course offers much more than just information about various legumes, whether you plan to produce them for your own consumption, as a valuable crop to sell, or just to provide advice to others (such as as a consultant, writer, broadcaster, or teacher). It will provide you a professionally designed learning experience that aides in understanding and retaining the essential information so that you are better prepared to deal with legumes in the future.
