International soybean variety experiment, first report of results

INTSOY"S PURPOSE IS TO EXPAND THE USE OF SOYBEANS FOR HUMAN FOOD THROUGH IMPROVED PRODUCTION AND UTILIZATION, PARTICULARLY IN THE PROTEIN-DEFICIENT DEVELOPING COUNTRIES OF THE TROPICS AND SUBTROPICS. THE FIRST PHASE OF INTSOY WAS TO EVALUATE THE ADAPTABILITY OF AVAILABLE SOYBEAN VARIETIES TO LOCALITIES IN WHICH THEY HAD NOT BEEN CULTIVATED PREVIOUSLY. THE INTERNATIONAL SOYBEAN VARIETY EVALUATION EXPERIMENT (ISVEX) WAS MADE IN 1973-1974 AT 60 SITES IN 27 COUNTRIES, USING 20 SOYBEAN VARIETIES. FROM THE DETAILED DATA OF THIS EXPERIMENT, IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT: 1) YIELD AND SEED WEIGHT DROPPED AS LATITUDE INCREASED; 2) THE NUMBER OF DAYS TO FLOWER AND DAYS TO MATURITY ROSE WITH LATITUDES; 3) IN HIGHER LATITUDES, CANOPY HEIGHT AT FLOWERING FELL, BUT PLANT HEIGHT AT MATURITY GREW; 4) PLANT HEIGHT WAS LESS THAN OPTIMUM IN ALL ZONES; 5) "LODGING" (BEATING DOWN, AS BY RAIN) DECREASED AS LATITUDE INCREASED, BUT WAS NOT A SERIOUS PROBLEM AT ANY SITE; AND 6) "SHATTERING" (FRAGMENTING) WAS NOT SEVERE IN ANY ZONE. FURTHER EXPERIMENTS WILL PROVIDE MORE EVIDENCE FOR THIS EVALUATION.