The Uzbek government wants to increase the local production of both plant and animal protein to reduce imports. In Europe the big protein ‘revolution’ is attempting to increase locally protein through e.g. more Lucerne and growing of lupines and Faba/field bean. The programme imported various varieties: Lucerne with and without a special coating of micro-elements, hydrogel to protect the small seed from drought and mycorrhiza, both winter and spring field beans and lupines. When discussing with the agronomists of the Grain and Legumes Institute in Andijan the director of the institute warned us that they had already tried the lupines and it had given a bad result. We had brought some seed into the country so I insisted on developing another trial with the seeds we brought. The same with the field beans, quite unknown in Uzbekistan (did someone know more than I did?). We planted both the winter and spring variety in autumn and in spring. The spring variety survived the winter well, but where in Europe it develops into a ground covering crop our field beans were less than impressive. There were some flowers but poor seed set. There were plenty bees around on the sunflowers so it was not the pollination. Visiting German agronomists warned already that these field beans don’t like too much heat and especially water shortages. And the director, institute’s legume agronomist and the German experts prediction came true: extremely poor performance and not the expected 4-5 tonnes of dry seed per ha. Waste of time? No, definitely not. We know now that these European varieties are not happy here. But….Saidakhmat our programme agronomist saw last year and this year that the apical dominance is weak and new sprouts develop at the foot of the plant although the main stem is flowering.. He suggests that we can leave the plants for the time being and see how in August/September it further develops. Last year the small area sown late in the year had mature seeds in October: maybe it is not an autumn/spring sowing crop in Uzbekistan, but in plain summer going into cooler weather? I still don’t understand why this is a staple crop in Egypt and Sudan, not particularly high humidity/moderate temperature countries. Do we need varieties from that part of the world? Maybe the international research centres can help us to get some seeds and we test a bit more, because the field beans would sown in July as an after crop after wheat be a welcome addition to the crop rotation!
Respected scientist of the Andijan Grain and Leguminous Crops Research Institute, Abduvali Mo’minov (Head of the Laboratory for Soybean and Oilseed Crop Breeding, Seed Production and Cultivation Agrotechnology; Candidate of Agricultural Sciences; Senior Researcher): ”We really tried our best, but this Faba bean of yours doesn’t like Uzbekistan!”Mr. X explained the team leader visiting the research field: bad result is also a result!
Very low Leaf Area Index, stunted growth, poor seed set: definitely not a happy plant!
Egyptian dish of ‘fouhl’(Faba beans): why there it grows and here not?
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