The process of green crop fractionation (GCF) has been recommended for producing high quality feed and food grade products for animal and human consumption respectively. The pressed crop (PC) residue released during fractionation is considered as a feed product which is fibrous in nature containing adequate nutrients to fulfil the requirements of cattle. This product is more digestible than whole unfractionated crop. The digestibility of PC residue increases due to the mechanical treatment i.e. maceration. Most of the proteins are extracted in juice and therefore the protein content in PC residue is less, in comparison to that in unfractionated foliage. Furthermore during pressing a large amount of moisture is released in the form of juice. The PC residue is thus low moisture product with low protein content. This character of PC enables to make good quality of silage. The leaf protein concentrate (LPC) obtained during GCF is free from indigestible fibre and it contains high proportions of proteins which are nutritionally superior. For this reason, its use in the nutrition of human beings and non - ruminants has been advocated. Apart from proteins, it contains appreciable amounts of vitamin A, minerals, fats and vitamin E. Studies of various places in India and abroad indicated its suitability in human nutrition.
Three crops, i.e., Vigna, cowpea and Dolichos were selected to find out its production potential before and after fractionation. These were earlier found suitable for fractionation and have been recommended for LP production. It is indicated that the crops are highly productive and can be raised without much use of fertiliser. As all the three crops were leguminous they would fix nitrogen and save fertilizer input. The data indicated that all the three crops produced appreciable amounts of PC residue as well as LPC and these crops could be employed for commercial production of leaf protein and fibrous residue. Their comparison with lucerne revealed that as these crops as annual; they could produce the products only during particular season. Hence detail investigation and crop sequence studies are required to produce LPC round the year from such suitable crops.
