Researchers from the Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL), a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded project led by the University of Illinois, are working to change that. In a new study, published in Agronomy, they have developed methods to help breeders improve soybean cultivars specifically for African environments, with the intention of creating fast-maturing lines that will bolster harvests and profits for smallholder farmers.
“It is important for producers and breeders to know when a cultivar is going to mature: that moment when a plant is at full capacity and performing its best. We were motivated to fill in gaps of knowledge around maturity timing in Africa,” says Guillermo Marcillo, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Crop Sciences at U of I, and first author on the new study.
Marcillo and his collaborators capitalized on five years of SIL performance trials, encompassing 176 cultivars and experimental lines grown across 68 African sites. The trials are part of SIL’s Pan-African Variety Trials (SIL-PAT) network, currently operating across 100 sites and 24 countries.
The researchers analyzed cultivar time-to-maturity against environmental variables, including temperature, day length, and elevation, using a statistical method known as a generalized additive model (GAM). The model was able to predict soybean time-to-maturity within 10 days for cultivars planted across Africa.
