Vegetable soybean research and industry development in Thailand

摘要

Vegetable soybean has been consumed by Thai people for more than hundred years. However, the high quality vegetable soybean production and industry development for export has been promoted only in the past 20 years. The initial stage of vegetable soybean development for export was the establishment of a frozen vegetable soybean factory in the late 1980's. The cooperation between Thailand and AVRDC in research, development, extension and market promotion at the early stage of industry development in 1991 stimulated vegetable soybean production for export and domestic use. The export of a small quantity commenced in 1 990 and increased to almost 10,000 t in 2002. Vegetable soybean can be grown in three seasons in a year mainly in the northern region with the planted area of about 2,600 ha in 2003. The graded pod yield averaged about 5.72 t/ha under farmer field conditions. The Thai Department of Agricultural Extension and the Thai Department of Health are responsible for production under good agricultural practice for domestic consumption. The private sectors promote high quality product for export. The Thai Department of Agriculture and universities are responsible for research and development to support production. The future strategy is to promote high quality products for both export and domestic consumption, variety improvement with high pod yield and good pod quality for export and development of appropriate technologies for the new production areas and product diversification for domestic market.