Ram Nair, AVRDC Legume Breeder, learned about developments in China’s mungbean industry at a forum on the introduction and application of breeding and cultivation technology for food legumes in Baicheng, China from 24-26 June 2012. The forum was organized by the National Industrial Technology Research and Development Centre and Baicheng City Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Baicheng, situated in the northwestern part of Jilin province, is the country’s largest mungbean production center. Mungbean varieties produced in the region are well-known for their fullness of grain and size, shiny green color, and outstanding nutritional and sprouting qualities. Of the 70,000 tonnes of mungbean exported annually from Baicheng, more than 50,000 tonnes are high value, sprouting quality beans. However, low yields, in part due to the lack of mechanization, discourage some farmers from planting the crop.
Fresh mungbean sprouts find a ready market throughout eastern China.
Mid-May to mid-June is the usual time of sowing. Three maturity types are grown: early maturing varieties (60-80 days) tend to be susceptible to diseases; 100-day maturing varieties are suitable to the region; 120-day varieties cannot mature properly before the onset of frost. Mungbean is planted as a single crop, or intercropped with corn, watermelon and cotton.
The use of mungbean germplasm obtained from AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center in the past was acknowledged by forum participants. Beginning in 1983, improved AVRDC mungbean lines were sent to the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) for evaluation. In 1993, AVRDC line VC 1973A was released as ‘Zhong Lu #1’; it was the first mungbean variety released for nationwide cultivation in China since 1949. The AVRDC Genebank holds the largest Vigna collection in the word with more than 11,000 accessions, of which 6,379 are mungbean.
Important diseases China’s mungbean farmers must contend with in the field include mungbean yellow mosaic disease, Cercospora leaf spot, and powdery mildew. After harvest, bruchids (small beetles) often are not detected until the seed has been stored for several months; the pests multiply rapidly in storage and by the time they are detected, the infested grain is usually unmarketable. Recently released high yielding varieties with yellow seed coats, high iron content and resistance to leaf spot are gaining in popularity. Tolerance to salt has been observed among some mungbean varieties, a promising characteristic for field production.
China’s consumers like their mungbean sprouts bright white and crisp, with short roots and small leaves, and free of bacterial or chemical contaminants. The market demands a shelf life of at least seven days and a reasonable price. Forum participants discussed the development of mungbean varieties suitable for sprouting and a mungbean farming model that would provide adequate returns to farmers. There are currently 18 large-scale bean sprouting companies in China with production capacity of 60-200 t/day. Beans 3.2 – 3.8 mm in size are used for sprouting and export.
Mungbean has been long been a staple of Chinese cuisine. Zhaoyuan, a city in Shandong province, has been producing mungbean vermicelli for 300 years, and today has more than 160 vermicelli producers. Mungbean “sheet” (wide noodles made from mungbean starch) is a traditional favorite in eastern China. These wide noodles can be made by hand or by machine; hand-made sheets are thinner, whiter and more transparent than machine-made sheets, and are more popular with consumers. Mungbean cakes and drinks are summertime specialties. By-products of mungbean starch production can be used to produce mungbean protein.
Ram visited several mungbean processing factories during his visit. Taonan City Jidou Trading Co., Ltd. in Taonan, Jilin province, has the capacity to process 100 t of beans daily; it relies on locally grown beans to produce products for the domestic and international markets, especially Southeast Asia. Ram also toured a factory where the mungbean seed coat is used to produce drinks; the factory has the capacity to process 10 t of beans a day.
