IISR develops drought-tolerant soybean variety

A unique drought-tolerant variety of soybean crop has been developed by the Indian Institute of Soybean Research (IISR) here in the interest of farmers, a senior official said on Monday.

The government of Madhya Pradesh, the largest soybean-producing state in the country, has given its approval to the new variety and its cultivation will start from the next Kharif season, he said.

“After the research of ten years, the NRC-136 variety is developed to deal with the problem of a long spell of drought during monsoon period which is the first-of-its-kind drought-tolerant soybean variety in the country,” said IIRC principal scientist Dr Gyanesh Kumar Satpute.

The unique character of this variety is that if after sowing, if there is a delay of 20-25 days in monsoon, even then its seed filling activity in the crop will not get affected and it will give a good yield. It will save farmers from suffering major losses.

''On account of inadequate irrigation resources, a majority of soybean producers in MP are dependent on monsoon. A situation arrives once in every three years in the state wherein farmers suffer major losses because of the long gap between the sowing and the arrival of monsoon,'' Satpute said.

He said the NRC-136 variety gets ready in 102 days and it gives a yield of 17-quintal per hectare. It also has a medium-level resistance to Mungbean Yellow Mosaic Virus attacks.

This variety is already notified in the eastern part of the country for sowing, Satpute added.

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