Soybean (Glycine Max L.)-A neglected versatile crop in Jammu and Kashmir, India

Soybean (Glycine max L.)-a versatile neglected and underutilized crop in the north-western Indian Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir has a vast potential to be exploited as an oil seed crop and livestock feed in the region. The crop can be used to reclaim and restore the fertility of comparatively less productive karewa and other marginal lands. In this study five local and diverse genotypes of soybean were characterized under rainfed conditions. The main objective of the work was to compare and contrast various agronomic traits, oil content and fatty acid composition in these genotypes differing in shape, size and color with those in other soybean growing areas in the country and around the world. The crop matured in 136.0–150.5 days with seed yield/plant of 27.96 g-54.16 g and 100seed weight of 10.42 g-26.22 g. An average oil content of 15.83%-18.39% has been recorded, comparatively lower in black seeded genotypes than in yellow seeded genotypes. However, the differences were non-significant. The five fatty acids detected in the oil were palmitic acid (8.57%-10.56%), stearic acid (3.57%-5.20%), oleic acid (20.37%-22.47%), linoleic acid (54.17%-56.39%) and linoleinic acid (8.08%-10.21%).Our study has thus revealed that local soybean genotypes have comparable quality characteristics and under rainfed conditions perform equally well as in other crop growing areas in the country and around the world.