This has been revealed in a recent report based on a study conducted in soyabean producing Dewas, Indore, Ujjain and Sehore districts by the National Research Centre for Soyabean (NRCS), Indore, and Indian Council of Agricutural Research, Delhi.

With four million hectares under the crop, Madhya Pradesh accounts for 73 per cent of the country's soyabean production. The country's three-fourths of the country's soyabean producing area falls in MP.According to the study, conducted following last year's soyabean crisis, the lifestyle of farmers in the soya producing areas has changed `tremendously' because of their higher income due to the crop, leading to a better education level, nutrition and health.

The farmers have been getting an estimated profit of Rs 25 crore annually from the crop, the report said. The profit wascalculated on the basis of adoption of high-yielding varieties of soyabean, expansion in its area of cultivation and the benefit of double cropping - of rabi as well as kharif -- in the same field. The profit during 1997-98 was estimated to be Rs 27 crore.

Besides better lifestyle of farmers, soyabean farming had also benefited the consumers because of availability of cheaper oilseeds, the report said, adding that the producer and consumer shared 65 and 35 per cent profit respectively. Significantly, unlike other crops, farmers were getting more percentage of profit with soyabean cultivation, it said.

The report said the crop leaves 30 to 60 kg of nitrogen in the soil after harvest. This is beneficial for wheat cultivation during the rabi season. The benefit-cost ratio was found to be 1.31 in respect of soyabean-wheat group while in other crops it was 1.13.