The MACS-Agharkar Research Institute recently developed a high-yielding, pest-resistant variety of soyabean, named MACS-1407. The institute is located in Pune. This is an autonomous institute operating under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
The new soyabean variety is suited for cultivation in Chhattisgarh, Assam, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Northeast India. Seeds of this new variety will be available to the farmers by 2022 Kharif season.
The institute has developed this new variety in collaboration with ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), New Delhi.
Key features of the new variety MACS-1407
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Scientists have developed this variety using traditional cross breeding technique.
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The variety has the potential to provide 39 quintals per hectare, which makes it a high-yielding variety.
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The variety needs an average 43 days to achieve 50% flowering stage. It needs 104 days to mature from the day of sowing.
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The variety has flowers of white color, seeds of yellow color, and hilum of black color. The seeds exhibit good germination power. They have 41% protein and 19.81% oil content.
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The variety features higher pod insertion, about 7 cm from ground, thicker stem, and good resistance to pod shattering. This makes it suitable for mechanical harvesting because the pods won’t shatter easily.
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The variety works best in rain-fed conditions, which is typical of Northeast India.
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The variety shows good resistance to significant pests and insects of soyabean, such as leaf miner, stem fly, girdle beetle, leaf roller, white fly, aphids, and defoliators.
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The variety shows resistance to vagaries of monsoon, as it impressively adapts to the weather conditions between June 20 and July 5 with no risk of yield loss.
Soyabean scenario in India
In 2019, Indian production of soyabean was about 90 million tonnes. The crop was grown as oilseed and as a cheap protein source for packaged meals and animal feed. New varieties with the potential to produce higher yield and to resist major pests can help India achieve the feat of becoming one of the major producers of soyabean in the world.
