Abstract

About 70% of the Rwandan population live on agriculture-related activities. Soybean is among the selected priority crops that are supported by the government through the agriculture sector subsidy program. However, the national production and yields per hectare remain very low compared to other countries such as the USA. Yet demand for soybean products and byproducts is increasing. On the list factors limiting soybean production, the narrow germplasm is ranked first. We introduced and tested a US-developed soybean population of 115 recombinant inbred lines segregating for yield among other factors. The lines were tested during the cropping seasons B2019 and A2020 where they were grown at two research stations using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. At one of the stations in the low altitudes the top yielder from the US-developed RIL outperformed the high-yielding local check by almost 1.2 MT/ha. A total of 32 RILs yielded more than the local check. At the other station, the general performance of the RIL population was in the range of the top performing local check. In general, our data suggest that the US-developed population, though from a temperate zone, can easily adapt in some agroecological zones of Rwanda. 

Key words: soybean, introduction, yield, cropping seasons.