BATHINDA, July 27 -- Field demonstrations of soybean farming as a kharif crop diversification in Punjab have started showing its cultivation feasibility for saving water.

Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has been promoting legume farming because soybean is a high-value crop with multiple food, feed, and industrial uses.

State agriculture officials said that soybean farming was introduced in 2016 but the farming community did not show much interest.

However, in 2020, Hoshiarpur-based Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) director Maninder Singh Bons and other scientists, under the aegis of PAU, started encouraging farmers to experiment with legume cultivation.

In 2019, soybean cultivation was done in 80 acres in Hoshiarpur, which has improved...