VARIABILITY OF YIELD AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION IN SOME ROMANIAN SOYBEAN GENOTYPES

Soybean can play an important role in securing the European protein resources. The goal of the breeder was to create highly productive soybean varieties, followed by quality grain. In this regard soybean breeding program at NARDI Fundulea has been involved in improving the genetic yield and quality potential to meet the need of farmers in different parts of the country. The objective of this study was to evaluate the variability of five soybean genotypes (created at NARDI Fundulea) from different maturity groups, grown at the National Agricultural Research and Development Institute Fundulea in 2017-2019, for yield, protein content and oil content. The year had statistically significant effect for the studied agronomic traits, p<0.01. The average yield for all genotypes was 2952 kg/ha. The highest grain yield on an average was recorded in genotype Crina F (41/9%). The average protein content of all examined genotypes was 40.07%. 2017 was the most favorable year for protein synthesis. The average oil content for all examined genotypes was Camelia F (23/77%). The most favorable year for oil synthesis was 2019 (23/48%). This research had evidentiated that new soybean genotypes created at NARDI Fundulea are suitable for new climatic conditions and can constitute the basis for further soybean breeding adapted to farmers' requirements.