Broad bean is the third largest winter edible bean crop in the world. Broad bean has high nutritional value, and its protein content is 25%-35%. Broad beans are also rich in sugar, minerals, vitamins, calcium and iron. In addition, as a nitrogen-fixing crop, broad bean can transform molecular nitrogen in nature into nitrogen-containing compounds, increasing the nitrogen content in soil.

Broad bean is one of the earliest bean crops cultivated by human beings. Broad beans are grown in more than 40 countries in the world, concentrated in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean coast. There are more than 40 cultivated varieties in China, and the output ranked first in the world in the 1950s, with an annual output of more than 3 billion kilograms.