BROADBEANS

Submitted To Submitted By
Dr. Yograj Shukla Hemlata Kaushal
Important points about Broadbeans
• Vicia faba, also known in the culinary sense as the broad bean, fava bean,
or faba bean, is a species of flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae.
•  It is also used as a cover crop.
• Varieties with smaller, harder seeds that are fed to horses or other animals are
called field bean, tic bean or tick bean.
• Vicia faba is a stiffly erect, annual plant 0.5 to 1.8 metres (1.6 to 5.9 ft) tall, with
two to four stems that are square in cross-section.
• The fruit is a broad, leathery pod that is green, but matures to a dark blackish-
brown, with a densely downy surface.
• The broad bean has high plant hardiness.
• The broad bean can be grown in soils with high salinity, as well as in clay
soil.
• Broad bean plants are highly susceptible to early summer infestations of
the black bean aphid.
• Faba bean rust is a fungal pathogen commonly affecting broad bean plants
at maturity.
• Vicia faba includes two cultivated varieties, the broad bean and the field
bean.
•  Plants produce many more flowers than they can develop to maturity, and
many are aborted either before or after fertilization.
• Both self- and cross-pollination are possible and may be facilitated by
visiting bees.
• A typical crop is a mix of low-yielding inbred and high-yielding hybrid
plants.
• Broad beans are normally sown in the spring, from February to April.
• It is a hardy plant and withstands low temperature as low as 4C.
• It tolerates salinity to a certain extent.
• Broad bean is sued as tender bean, green shelled bean, and dry bean
and as cattle feed.
• Plants are more or less vine like and grow erect without branching to
a height of 60-125 cm.
• Broad bean requires low temperature for its cultivation.
• Crop is tolerant to water stress due to protein accumulation.
• It tolerates water-logging and salinity.
Latest area and production of broadbeans
Different Types of Broadbeans
Long pod
Aguadulce, Imperial Green Longpod, Relon, Hylon, Imperial White Longpod,
Bunyard"s Exhibition, Masterpiece Longpod, Express, Sussex Wonder
Longpod, Red Epicure. All of them are characterised for measuring around
40cm long, with 8-10 kidney-shaped seeds. As general characteristics stand
out their resistance and their early production.

Windsor varieties
Green Windsor, White Windsor. They are shorter and wider than those of long
pod. They produce between 4-7 seeds; they have the best taste among all the
varieties.

Dwarfed varieties
The Sutton, Bonny Lad.
Question – 1 (Fill in the blanks):
1) Broad bean requires ______temperature for its cultivation.
2) Crop is tolerant to water stress due to _______accumulation.
3) Jawahar Selection 73-31 is an improved selection from_______.
4) Green pods grow ________to stem.
5) Plants are more or less vine like and grow erect without ________to a
height of 60-125 cm.
6) This plant is sensitive to cold temperatures and to __________.
7) Vicia faba has a diploid (2n) chromosome number of____.
8) ________, an aphid, is a serious pest of broad beans in late spring.
9) Broad bean is a _____ plant.
10) About ______seed is required for cultivation.
(Answers: 1. low 2. protein 3. Madhya Pradesh 4. parallel 5. branching 6.
vernalization 7. 12 8. Blackfly 9. Hardy 10. 70-100 kg/ha )
Question – 2 (True / False )
1) Sowing is done in the month of September-October and February-March.(True)
2) The seeds are sown in shallow furrows of 15cm width with a spacing of 75cm.(True)
3) It can be sown in a single row system with spacing of 15x15cm.(False)
4) Broad bean, Vicia faba, is a leguminous plant in the family Fabaceae.(True)
5) Broad beans will grow best at soil temperatures between 10 and 11°C .(False)
6) Broad bean is particularly susceptible to high temperatures during the summer.
(True)
7) Broad beans should be direct seeded in the garden in Spring.(True)
8) Nodulation can be promoted by inoculating seeds with additional Rhizobacteria
prior to planting.(True)
9) They grow best in well-drained soils with a pH around 5.(False)
10)  Broad beans are able to harvest nitrogen from the air.(True)
(Answers: 3. 45x15cm 5. 15.5 and 18.3°C 9.7)
Question -3(Correct the statement)
1) Crops planted too early in summer and early autumn will grow small.
2) The broad bean is not a small feeder.
3)  Broad beans like their soil to be slightly alkaline .
4) The seeds should be planted about three to four inches deep.
5) Germination takes place in 20 to 30 days.
6) The species is hermaphrodite and is pollinated by winter.
7) It prefers moist soil and can’t tolerate drought.
8) V. faba has a very high content of saturated fatty acids.
9) Vicia faba is an erect, annual plant, producing a stout stem with one
basal branches.
10) Seedlings are not frost tolerant so faba bean can be seeded as early as
soil conditions permit.
Correction
1) Tall
2) Heavy
3) Acidic
4) one to two inches
5) 7 to 14 days
6) Bees
7) can tolerate
8) low
9) one or more
10) not frost tolerant
Question – 4 (Match the following)
1) Peronospora viciae a) Bacterial brown spot
2) Stunted plant growth b) Chocolate spot
3) Pseudomonas syringae c) Downy mildew
4) Botrytis cinerea d) Fusarium root rot
5) Xanthomonas campestris e) Powdery mildew 
6) Erysiphe pisi f) Leaf blight 
7) Acyrthosiphon pisum
g) Aphids 
8) Uromyces viciae-fabae
h) Broad bean rust
9) Epilachna varivestis
i) Leafminers 
10) Lyriomyza spp
j) Mexican bean beetle
Answers- a-3, b-4 c-1, d-2, e-6, f-5,
g-7, h-9, i-10, j-8
Question – 5 (Multiple choice question)
1) Chromosome no. of Broad bean is –
a) 2n = 12 b) 2n =18 c) 2n= 16 d) 2n =24
2) Dwarfed variety of Broad bean -
a) Purple top white b) Golden Ball c) Bonny Lad d) Snowball
3) Depth of sowing should be 
b) 1.5cm b) 3cm c) 5cm d) 7cm
4) Seeds of Broad bean should be sown on ridges or rows at
c) 30cm b) 60cm c) 45cm d) 90cm
5) Botanical Family Name of Broad bean
d) Cruciferae b) Vicia faba c) Spikelet d) Peronospora
6) Seed rate in Broad bean is –
e) 25 b) 50 c) 70 d) 90
7) Pollination System of Broad bean is
a) Self b) cross c) narrow d) both a and b
8) Optimum temp. for heading in Broad bean is –
a) 15-18 degree celcius b) 18 – 24 degree celcius c) 10 -15 degree celcius
d) 25- 30 degree celcius
9) In the plains, the seeds of Broad bean are sown from
e) July to August b) September to October c) October to December d)
January to March
10)  Broad bean needs a loose, well-aerated soil having a pH range of
f)  6.0 to 6.75 b) 4.4 to 5.0 c) 7.0 to 8.0 d) 5.0 to 6.0

( Answers - 1-a , 2-c , 3-c , 4-c , 5-a , 6-b , 7-a , 8- a, 9-a , 10- a )
R ece nt R es ea rc h: Fi eld s c re eni ng o f b ro ad bea n ( Vic ia f ab a L .) c ult ivar s o f M a nip ur for the ir res is t anc e r eac tio n t o A ph is c rac ci vor a ( Ko ch.)

• Broad bean, Vicia faba L. is one of the important pulse crops in India. Broad bean is grown widely in the hilly
terrains of Manipur. However, productivity of this crop is far below the national average and of its potential.
Amongst the several abiotic and biotic factors for low productivity of broad bean, the damage caused by insect-
pests which attack the crop from seedling to pod maturity stage is considered as one of the major production
constraints. Among the different insect-pests of broad bean observed in Manipur, black aphid (Aphis craccivora)
causes serious damage to the crop. It is, therefore, considered imperative to initiate investigation on this aphid
of broad bean, one of the most important pulse crops of the state.
• On the other hand, very few research work has been conducted on black aphid resistant/tolerant broad bean
varieties in the North Eastern Region of India. Given this backdrop, the present investigation was undertaken for
screening of local broad bean (Vicia faba L.) cultivars of Manipur for their resistance reaction to Aphis craccivora
(Koch.). The present investigation was carried out under the agro-climatic condition of Manipur with five local
cultivars. The significant results generated from the study clearly revealed that Aphis craccivora was a regular
pest of broad bean and maintained moderate level of population under valley condition of Manipur
• . Among the five cultivars tested in the present experiment, BLC-1 and BLC-2 were found to be suitable in terms
of their resistance against black aphid. The cultivars may be recommended for the regions where aphid is a
predominant pests for broad bean or can be included in future breeding programme to evolve better varieties.
Recent Research: Pollination of the broad bean (Vicia faba L.var. major)
(Fabaceae) by wild bees and honey bees

• An experiment conducted with caged plots confirmed the large seed yield of
Vicia faba L. in the presence of pollinating insects during the flowering season.
The plants that were accessible to pollinators provided more pods per plant,
more seeds per pods; the pods were longer and the seeds were heavier than the
encaged plants.
• Among the pollinating insects of Vicia faba, in the Tizi Ouzou area (Algeria), the
wild bee Eucera pulveracea Dours was the most abundant and seemed to be the
most effective pollinator. His visits were all able to fertilize the flowers.
• On the contrary, several floral visits of the honey bee Apis mellifera L. and all
visits of Xylocopa violacea were "nectar robbery" through the holes made by the
bumblebees at the base of the corolla. The floral visits of Eucera pulveracea L.
were also faster (10 visits per minute).
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