23 May 2024, New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Soybean Research located at Indore in Madhya Pradesh has released an advisory for soybean farmers for high production of soybean in the coming kharif season. The institute has advised the farmers to carry deep summer ploughing only once in 3 years. Further, the Soybean Research Institute has advised farmers to cultivate at least 2-3 soybean varieties to reduce the risk of uncertainty in yield due to biotic and abiotic factors.
For field preparation, farmers have been advised to apply deep summer ploughing once in 3 years. After this, the field should be prepared using criss-cross harrowing followed by planking. If this was done in the past 3 years, two criss-cross harrowings followed by planking is sufficient for field preparation.
Farmers have also been recommended to use organic manure in soybean fields. The research institute has advised farmers to apply well-decomposed Manure @ 5-10 t/ha or Poultry Manure @ 2.5 t/ha before the last harrowing.
As per suitability, farmers are advised to run the sub-soiler machine once in five years, at an interval of 10 m which facilitates the breaking of hard soil pan thereby increasing the rainwater infiltration and helps in case of drought.
Correct spacing is a very important parameter to have an optimum plant population. The recommended row-to-row spacing for soybean is 45 cm at a 5-10 cm plant-to-plant distance. The germinability of small/medium seed sizes is invariably higher than the bold-seeded soybean varieties. Therefore, the seed rate of only 60-75 kg/ha will be economically viable for the seed to have good germination.
