Soya bean (Glycine max) is an economic crop used for both human and animal feeding. Oil
seed meals are important sources of protein and energy for both human and livestock. The
most recent country by country estimate of global production of soya bean as at 2007 by the
United States Department of Agriculture was 206.4 million tons with the US, Brazil,
Argentina, China and India taking the global lead in descending order of production. Soya
bean meal is mainly used as animal feed in most countries, but there is high consumption of
soya bean meal as tofu in Asian countries. Soya bean has also assumed a place of
importance in the production of biodiesel aimed at supplementing the world’s complete
dependence on fossil fuel, which is a finite resource. Soya bean meal is one of the most
researched ingredients in animal nutrition and one of the most important feed ingredients
used for animal feeding. There is a high demand for SBM for livestock production globally,
which is driven by improvement in quality of life, a change of taste and a shift from
dependence on vegetable protein to animal protein as a result of the emergence of the
middle class in Asia especially in China. The recent ban on all terrestrial feed ingredients
such as fish meal and bone and meat meal in pig and poultry feeding in the European Union
has further tended to heavy dependence on soya bean meal as sole ingredient for nonruminant
feeding. Other oil seed legumes such as peas, field beans, rapeseed seed and
cotton seed meal are all measured against soya bean meal in terms of their nutritive values.
The proximate and amino acid compositions of SBM and other oil seed legume are shown in
Table 1. These feedstuffs are often used to substitute part of soya bean meal for animal
feeding, but not to serve as complete replacement if optimum biological performance is to
be attained. Most nutrients needed for the nourishment of livestock for sustenance of life,