Identification of useful traits for organic soybean breeding in limiting and changing agro-climatic conditions

Abstract

Organic farming is practiced on over 72 million hectares of agricultural land worldwide. Soybean (Glycine max) is cultivated organically on 644 323 ha. Each year, the selection of the right soybean varieties for their fields is one of the most challenging management decisions that farmers must undertake. Soybean breeding companies continuously offer varieties from their breeding programs that can meet the various needs of farmers, industry and consumers. The growing demand for soybean varieties suitable for organic farming is fostering breeding activities to better fulfil the specific requirements of the organic value chain participants. Within the ECOBREED project, characterisation of a soybean working collection is carried out across contrasting environments in three countries, i.e. Austria, Romania and Serbia, which will enable the identification of useful traits (variation) and the level of local adaptation of genotypes. The following traits are assessed: yield and yield components, crop growth related traits, grain quality traits.