Abstract
In Pakistan, soybean has been grown from the time immemorial on the hills of Northern area. Presently soybean covers about 6350 hectares in Pakistan. Although testing of soybean in Pakistan on small scale has been in progress since long, the development efforts on this crop along with oilier non-traditional oilseeds prompted by extremely short supplies of edible oils, is of recent origin. Consequent upon the initiations of Oilseed Development Program at Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad in 1977, extensive research work for the development of early maturing, high yielding, drought and disease resistant varieties of soybean is in progress at different research stations including National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad. The nitrogen fixation capacity of soybean has not been used in the selection criteria. The assessment of nitrogen fixation by soybean could be one of the important selection criteria for superior soybean varieties because N2 fixation is a major factor of soybean productivity. Research was conducted to assess the N2 fixation of ten different soybean varieties already under investigation for economic yield by the scientists at Oilseed Research Program, NARC. The N2 fixation was assessed by using xylem solute technique. Selection 8-69-94 showed highest the germination count followed by NARC-6, while the selection PSC- 56 was the lowest in germination count. Selections NARC-6 and NARC-7 were the best for nodule number/grade and total nitrogen fixed, while the selections Davis and S-72-60 showed the lowest nodule number/grade. Cultivar NARC-6 showed maximum % Pi= of (relative proportion of nitrogen derived through N fixation) of 49% following by NARC-7 (32%) while lowest by Davis (1.31%) and S-72-60 (2.6%). The cultivar NARC-6 fixed 48 kg Mita followed by NARC-7 (36 kg Mho). Although selection Ajmer( produced highest grain yield, but the differences in grain yield amongst all selections were not significant with the exception ofV-1 and SOY-95-1. Based on their N2 fixation trait, it is recommended that NARC-6 and NARC-7 be considered for growing in the barani tract of the Punjab
Shahzada Sohail Ijaz, Safdar Ali , Rifat Hayat. (2002) Evaluation of some soybean selections for N2- fixation capacity, The Journal Soil & Environment , Volume 21, Issue (1-2).
-
Views
320 -
Downloads
47
