Common vetch is a useful crop feed for some animals but toxic to others, and can cause health problems for humans. A team of Adelaide University scientists has successfully developed a new strain of low-toxicity vetch which may seed a new industry worth millions of dollars. Plants that are the staple food of some animals can be deadly to others. Many plants have properties that lie somewhere between the extremes of toxic and safe. Vetch is one of these.
Common vetch is useful to farmers as a versatile nitrogen-fixing crop in cereal crop rotations.
Now, a team of Adelaide University scientists led by Dr Max Tate at the Waite campus, has successfully produced a low toxin white-vetch grain that has offers considerable health benefits and economic possibilities. Details of the new variety, which has the potential to improve marketing opportunities for the grain, will be released in a talk on January 31 at the 10th Australian Agronomy Conference in Hobart. In the past, these red lentils have caused more than a few problems. Dr Tate earned an international reputation in the 1990s when he voiced his concern at the export of a toxic Australian feed vetch as a cheap substitute for food grade lentils. According to Dr Tate, such exports to third world countries had the potential to cause serious health problems.