Smallholder Soybean farmers’ incomes may increase by 53 percent from new soybean varieties – IITA

SMALLHOLDER SOYBEAN FARM ERS’ incomes in Africa may increase by 53 percent if they adopt the right agricultural practices of the new soybean varieties discovered through research conducted by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

The research was conducted on some farms in the south-eastern part of Africa, Malawi, the adopted new species and plant practices which was meticulously followed resulted to about 61 percent grain yield and farmers who adopted the method had 53 percent gain on their incomes.

This implies that soybean production in African could be ramped up from the current annual production of 1.5 million metric tonnes.

Also, improved production of the grain was recorded by breeding and releasing over 15 varieties in the last 19 years through national and international researchers.

However, Malawi largely cultivates maize than soybean and with this new varieties discovered it could ramp up the country’s annual soybean production from 0.98 tonnes per hectare.

Adane Hirpa Turfa, a crop scientist with IITA said that more farmers can benefit from this breakthrough if they have unrestricted access to information on the new varieties available.

“With only 34% of the sampled farmers being adopters, more awareness is needed if more farmers are to benefit from improved technologies,” said Turfa.

the new varieties are high yielding, with a shorter maturity period, more pods per plant and perform better under poor and erratic rainfall. Better agronomic practices such as the right planting dates, close row spacing that can smother weeds, and correct and timely application of phosphorus fertilizers have also been popularized through projects such as “Putting Nitrogen Fixation to Work for Smallholder Farmers in Africa (N2Africa).”

Moreover, Nigeria as the largest producer of soybean in sub-Saharan Africa is being faced with lots of production constraints such as constant shortage of fertilizers for farmers, poor storage facilities as well as untapped economic opportunities in the soybean value chain.