Progressing the breeding of soybean
Legume Generation aims to strengthen soybean breeding in Europe by linking breeders, researchers, and industry in a coordinated innovation community. The goal is to improve competitiveness of soybean production through better varieties adapted to European climates, farming systems, and market demands. Legume Generation report 9 describes the progress that has been made in the first 24 months of the project.
Partners have combined breeding expertise with shared multi-location field trials across Europe. Material was tested for yield, maturity, drought tolerance, disease resilience, and seed quality. Modern tools such as genotyping, marker-assisted selection, digital phenotyping, and advanced data analysis are being used to accelerate selection and improve breeding efficiency.
The project has already strengthened cooperation between breeding programmes and generated valuable datasets on soybean performance under contrasting environments. Marker resources representing European soybean diversity were developed to help breeders identify useful germplasm faster. Progress has been made in selecting material with stable yield, better adaptation to northern and continental regions, and improved quality for food uses.
Continued pre-competitive collaboration is essential, especially for small and medium-sized breeding companies that cannot develop expensive technologies alone. Europe should invest further in shared genomics, AI-supported breeding tools, and high-throughput phenotyping. Future priorities include high-protein food-grade soybeans, specialty quality traits, climate resilience, and use of new genomic techniques where accepted.
Legume Generation - Boosting innovation in breeding for the next generation of legume crops for Europe
Ongoing | 2023-2028
- Main funding source
- Horizon Europe (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Geographical location
- Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Czechia, Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, New Zealand