The tropical grain legume soybean (Glycine max) is widely grown in Thailand as an oilseed, and the residue is used for animal feed. In the 15 years to 1988, production increased sixfold. However, demand still outstrips supply, and the Thai Government has given national priority to expanding domestic production to 950 Mt by 1995. The aim is to expand production into new regions and to increase average yield above the current level of 1 t/ha.
Scientists in the CSIRO Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures maintain an active soybean improvement research program for the tropics and subtropics. They will collaborate with Thai counterparts in the Field Crop Research Institute (FCRI) of the Thai Department of Agriculture and in the Departments of Agronomy at both Kasetsart (KU) and Khon Kaen (KKU) Universities.
The project will continue the work on soybean begun in project No. 8405, Soybean and mungbean improvement in the tropics. Scientists will study the increased use of exotic, tropically adapted germplasm to enhance yield potential, and seek breeding and agronomic strategies to minimise regional and seasonal constraints to yield caused by drought stress and inherent instability to environmental variations.
Four main activities are proposed: collaborative field and laboratory experimentation in Thailand and Australia: exchange of germplasm; exchange visits between Australian and Thai scientists; research support for collaborating Thai scientists.
In the earlier project, Brazilian germplasm was shown to be high-yielding in several regions of Thailand. Emphasis will be placed on the use of juvenile traits of this germplasm to confer reduced photoperiod sensitivity. In Brazil, the juvenile genes are being exploited to minimise undesirable regional and seasonal instability (due to genotype-environment interaction) and to maximise yield potential.
Breeding strategies for improved drought tolerance will focus on screening for drought-resistant traits. Agronomic strategies for maximising efficient use of residual soil water will focus on choice of cultivar and, where possible, sowing date, in order to best match crop duration to available water supply.
In Thailand, FCRI breeding research will be centred at the Chiangmai Field Crop Research Centre at MaeJo, the national centre for soybean breeding. The Centre is located within the traditional northern growing region, where most of the crop is grown during the dry season, following rice. Supportive activities, of more regional focus, will be located at Chainat and Nakhon Sawan. Project activities of KU and KKU will also have a regional focus: KU research will be located at Ban Pong, a site representative of the Maeklong catchment region of the lower Central Plain, where there is opportunity for irrigated soybean as a replacement crop for rice; and KKU research will focus on cultivars and agronomic management to optimise yield of dry-season soybeans grown on residual stored soil water after rice, or with limited supplemental irrigation.
In Australia, research will be centred at the Cunningham Laboratory in Brisbane, with field experiments at Samford, Lawes, and Dalby in southern Queensland and in the Burdekin irrigation area in northern Queensland. The National Soybean Research Centre in Brazil will supply breeding materials containing the juvenile-trait genes of interest, and also a set of cultivars and advanced breeding lines for evaluation in Thai environments. Additional exotic material from the Australian program and from international centres will be introduced and evaluated for performance in each of the main regions and seasons being targeted for expanded soybean production in Thailand.
Thai scientists will visit soybean research centres in Australia to observe procedures and learn new research methods, and Australian scientists will visit Thailand to facilitate scientific interaction and coordinate project activities.
The immediate benefit of the project will be its contributions to Thai soybean improvement in terms of both scientific information and germplasm. Greater and more reliable yields will increase economic productivity of soybeans, making them more attractive to growers, and reduce reliance on imports. Accumulated knowledge from the project will form the basis of future cultivar selection. The results will be relevant to Australia's soybean breeding program and those of other tropical countries in the region.
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