2020
Yield Limitations of Commercial Soybean Varieties under Drought: Identifying and Overcoming Weaknesses via “Team Drought’s” Public Breeding Pipeline
Contributor/Checkoff:
Category:
Sustainable Production
Keywords:
(none assigned)
Lead Principal Investigator:
Ben Fallen, USDA/ARS-North Carolina State University
Co-Principal Investigators:
Project Code:
2020-172-0158
Contributing Organization (Checkoff):
Institution Funded:
$465,000
Brief Project Summary:

Unique Keywords:
#sustainability
Information And Results
Project Deliverables

Final Project Results

Updated February 1, 2021:
Covid-19 did and continues to have an impact on research in 2020. However, despite numerous restrictions and limitations, ~80% of our drought related research projects were planted. If it wasn’t for the extraordinary effort put forth by the drought team, we would have missed out on a very good year for drought research. While drought research in the lab and in the greenhouse is very important, field screening, especially in an open-air environment is monumental for making key discoveries in soybean drought research. This allows us to evaluate material in the same growing conditions as farmers were experiencing. In 2020, severe drought conditions were observed from the Midwest to the Southeast. In late August nearly half of Iowa was reported to be in a “severe or extreme drought,” according the USDA’s weekly drought monitor, right at the time soybeans were setting pods. So, it is not a question of if a drought will occur, it is more about when it occurs and how much damage it causes. During course of this project, we have harvested and processed over 8,800 yield plots. Yield trials were conducted under irrigated and rainfed conditions and yield retention index under drought was calculated for the drought lines and compared with popular commercial checks. We have identified several lines with high drought yield index and slow wilting trait.

The United Soybean Research Retention policy will display final reports with the project once completed but working files will be purged after three years. And financial information after seven years. All pertinent information is in the final report or if you want more information, please contact the project lead at your state soybean organization or principal investigator listed on the project.