Cluster Bean ( cyamopsis tetragonoloba(L.)Taub.): Cluster bean,Cultivars, Time of sowing, Yield, Quality

Clusterbean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub.), which is popularly known as guar is a drought tolerant annual legume crop. It is grown traditionally for cattle feed and green forage crop. Its green pods are used as a vegetable in some areas. It has assumed great industrial importance in recent years, mainly due to the presence of gum in its endosperm, which constitutes 35-40 per cent of the whole seed.Guar meal, a byproduct of guar gum industry is also of considerable value as it contains more than 42 per cent protein. Now-a-days, guar has emerged as a new industrial crop and is commercially grown in India, Pakistan and U.S.A and to some extent in Australia, South Africa and Brazil. Guar gum finds a ready international market for its ever increasing demand in various industries like textile, paper, food processing, cosmetics, mining, pharmaceutical, explosives, petroleum, oil industries, photography refining, etc. Guar, being a leguminous crop, also adds fertility to the soil by fixing atmospheric nitrogen.