Performance evaluation and introduction of vegetable soybean (Glycine max) variety ‘Swarna Vasundhara’ in coastal areas of West Bengal

Abstract

Vegetable soybean variety ‘Swarna Vasundhara’ developed by ICAR-RCER, Research Centre, Ranchi was introduced and evaluated for its performance under different planting conditions (flatbed, raised bed and ridge & furrow) on moderately saline soils (pH 7.4 and EC 4.2 ds m-1) in coastal areas of West Bengal. The experiment was conducted during the summer season of 2023 at the research farm of the School of Agriculture and Allied Sciences (SAAS), The Neotia University. Planting of this variety on ridges significantly increased (38.9%) green pod yield compared to planting on flatbed. This was mainly due to significantly higher plant height (12.4%) and number of pods plant-1 (19.0%) associated with planting on ridges compared to planting on flatbed. Likewise gross return also increased (38.6%) to Rs.135,000 per hectare in ridge method compared to growing on flat bed. On the contrary, planting of this variety on raised bed did not show any significant improvement over planting on flatbed. Observed better performance of the crop on ridges compared to both flatbed and raised bed may be due to lower salt concentration in the crop root zone combined with better root growth associated with crop on ridges.