Soybean improvement - achievements and prospects in Malaysia

Soybean improvement - achievements and prospects in Malaysia

Napompeth, B. Book author
Subhadrabandhu, S. Book author

Bangkok Kasetsart University Thailand

1985

p.465-474

SB123.N3 1986

Since the early seventies, research on yield improvement in soybean has been very active. Results thus far indicated that soybean has a yield potential equivalent to any other tropical countries. However, a number of production problems such as low unstable yield, pests and diseases, weeds, inefficient management and environmental constraints could negatively affect the exploitation of this yield potential. Though there is good potential to use soybean as an intercrop in newly established rubber and oil plam plantations or as a relay crop between replantings, its high production cost coupled with yield instability make it a high risk crop. Thus, local farmers are not interested in growing this labor intensive crop because they are able to make better profit by growing other intercrops such as bananas, groundnut and vegetables. Thus, the present circumstances indicate that it is uneconomical to grow soybean locally. To commercialize soybean production in Malaysia, the first priority in research may have to do with yield improvement through plant breeding and cultural practices. This had to couple with a production technology such as mechanization to reduce labor cost. [AS]

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