Neglected legume crops of Serbia: Faba bean (Vicia faba)

Abstract

Faba bean is cultivated locally in Serbia with no available official data. The collection at Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops in Novi Sad contains 141 accessions of food and feed faba bean. Forage yields in faba bean may surpass 40 t ha-1 of green forage and 8 t ha-1 of forage dry matter, while grain yields are often higher than 5 t ha-1. Faba bean may produce more than 1,500 kg ha-1 of forage crude protein and about 2,000 kg ha-1 of grain crude protein, as well as more than 250 kg ha-1 of above-ground biomass nitrogen. The first Serbian feed faba bean breeding programme, carried out at Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops in Novi Sad, resulted in registration of two cultivars in 2007, Gema and Šarac, with more than 4,500 kg ha-1 of grain and more than 45 t ha-1 of green forage. .

Keywords

• breeding
• faba bean
• forage
• grain
• quality
• Vicia faba
• yield