VARIABILITY AND HERITABILITY OF SOME AGRONOMICAL AND QUALITY CHARACTERS OF SOYBEAN (GLYCINE MAX (L.) MERR.) CULTIVARS

Abstract

Soybean is one of the most important crops in the world due to its high nutritional value and also because its importance in crop rotation. Soybeans have relatively high requirements for soil nutrients, but also for its structure. Adequate nutrient support can ensure both high and stable yields and a high fat and protein content, soybeans being considered an important source of macronutrients. In order to estimate the genetic parameters of some yield components and quality traits in soybean crop, a two years polifactorial experiment was carried out at Research and Development Station for Agriculture Turda, Romania (RDSA Turda). The experiment had an area of 57 x 35 m and was based on a subdivided parcel design with three replications, using plots of 5 m2. It included 13 soybean cultivars from three maturity groups fertilized with 3 different doses (without fertilization, 150 kg/ha, 200 kg/ha, 250 kg/ha complex fertilizer) and two mineral fertilizers (NPK 16:16:16 and NPK 27:13.5:0). Seven varieties (Perla, Carla TD, Felix, Onix, Caro TD, Ada TD, Raluca TD) and six perspective lines (T-295, T-161, T-165, T-6117, T-166, T-6126) developed at RDSA Turda were used for the experiment. Yield, insertion of the basal pods, number of pods/plant, number of grain/plant, grain weight/ plant and thousand kernel weight (TKW), were studied. Regarding the quality parameters, fat and protein content were analysed. The results obtained reveald that yield, yield elements, protein and fat content were very high influenced by the genotype. Small influence of the experimental factor dose of fertilization in yield was observed. Regarding the genetic parameters, for seed size (TKW) was recorded high values for heritability in broad sense, for genetic advance and also for genetic advance in percent, sugesting that soybean grain yield cand be improved by the direct selection of genotypes with high values of TKW.