Seed yield potential of vegetable type soybean genotypes in South Africa

• Rouxléne Van der Merwe ^[1] ; Armand Smit ^[2]
  1. [1] University of the Free State

     University of the Free State

     Mangaung, Sudáfrica

     
  2. [2] Edamame Development Program. Hillcrest, Kwa-Zulu Natal. South Afric
• Localización: Mol: boletín de la Sociedad de Ciencias de Galicia, ISSN 1133-3669, Nº. 16 (Octubre-October), 2016 (Ejemplar dedicado a: AÑO INTERNACIONAL DE LAS LEGUMBRES), págs. 7-17
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Ejemplar
• Resumen

  • Large-seeded, vegetable type soybean has been introduced to South Africa as a supplemen- tary high quality protein food source that is eaten as a green vegetable and is non-genetically modified. The crop is promoted for small-scale farming and community garden projects with emerging farmers currently producing the crop under contract. However, the newly intro- duced cultivars need to be characterised for their performance under South African production conditions. The lack of phenological and yield data on introduced cultivars limit commercial production in the country and there is a need to develop cultivars that are adapted to South African production conditions. The aim of this study was to characterise the introduced veg- etable type soybean cultivars under different planting environments in order to identify par- ents that could be used to initiate a breeding programme and to establish breeding objectives.

    Eighteen cultivars have been planted in cultivar trials at five diverse environments for one season (2013/2014). Combined analysis of variance indicated significant cultivar, location and cultivar by location interaction effects for all morphological traits analysed. Seed yield ranged from 1.19 to 2.70 t ha-1 with a mean seed yield of 1.97 t ha-1. Genotypes AGS418 and AGS354 were the top seed yielding varieties. Correlation and stepwise regression analyses indicated that 100-seed weight contributed positively to seed yield while pod shattering caused yield reduction. Cultivars were characterised with regard to the traits analysed and large phenotypic diversity among cultivars for all traits were observed. Putative parents to be used in the breed- ing programme for new cultivars have been identified. These provide genes that could be com- bined in order to develop more ideal cultivars for South Africa. The first breeding objective would be to improve seed yield by breeding for pod shattering resistance.