ABSTRACT

Soybean otherwise known as Glycine max merilli is regarded as one of the best answers to the shortage of protein and calories deficient in the diet of many millions of people in various parts of the world (Oyekan, 2003). The crop is gaining increasingly importance because it is one of the main food source of protein in human and animal nutrition. It is a food source which contains high quality protein and does not contain cholesterol and saturated fatty acids. It is used in food industry for products like gliserol and soybean oil. A large number of dishes such as bread, chapati, milk, sweets, and pastries can be prepared with soybean. It conthins about 40% protein and 20% oil. Soybean protein is rich in the valuable amino acid lycine (5%). It is considered as one of most important cereal grains in Nigeria. It contains about 40% protein and 20% cholesterol-free oil (Desphande et al., 2003). Soybean is becoming a preeminent cheap source of protein and edible oil in Africa as a whole as other protein supplying foods are increasingly becoming very expensive (such as milk, fish, meat and eggs). According to Adewale et al., (2005) reported that threshing and other unit operations have been identified as a major bottleneck to soybean production by most farmers especially small medium scale farmers. It determines the hectare of soybean a farmer cultivate. Most of the farmers threshed manually the soybean pods with heavy stick. To alleviate manual unit operations, low cost but efficient equipment should be developed locally