Major changes are occurring in every facet of our lives. These changes have profound effects on the production, utilization and marketing of food legumes. We must keep abreast of these changes and how they affect the food legume industry. In this waywe can take an active role in leading research, development and extension efforts in food legumes into the 21st century. These changes include increased demand for traditional foods, new foods based on various components (protein, oil and starch) and functional foods (soluble fibre) and nutriceuticals for our aging population. Value-added processing for new food or industrial products will become increasingly important. Biotechnology will be used to increase yield, quality and net returns by incorporating selected traits, such as insect resistance, disease resistance or some special nutritive or health-related trait, into the latest cultivars.
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