Replacing Rice with Soybean for Sustainable Agriculture in the Indo-Gangetic Plain of India: Production Technology for Higher Productivity of Soybean

摘要

The aim of the study was to know the production potential of soybean and see if soybean could be grown successfully as an alternate to rice. Therefore, 8 field experiments were conducted during 1999 to 2001 on a loamy sand soil to find out optimum time of sowing, best genotype, optimum plant population, adequate seed rate and row spacing for achieving high yields of soybean. The grain yield s of the crop sown on 24 May (1798 kg ha-1), 8 June (1828 kg ha-1) and 24 June (1878 kg ha-1) were on par, however, 8 July (1364 kg ha-1) sowing produced the lowest yield. Genotypes SL 459, SL 517, SL 525, SL 295 and PK 416 were high yielders (1456-2526 kg ha-1). Plant populations of 0.45 (1584 kg ha-1) and 0.60 million plants ha-1 (1609 kg ha-1) were on par in grain yield and produced higher yields than 0.30 million plants ha-1 (1436 kg ha-1). Row spacings of 45 and 60 cm and seed rates of 62.5, 75 and 87.5 kg ha-1 or 50, 62.5 and 75 kg ha-1 produced similar grain yield s. Results from the present studies indicate that suitable production technology is available for achieving high grain yield s of soybean and thus, it has a great potential for replacing some of the area currently under rice.