Research Notes: Soybean Breeding in Austria

Introduction: Since Brillmayr (1929) published his first report on soybeans, there has been almost no intensive research on it in Austria. Its cultivation dropped gradually and then ceased completely after World War II, due to the increased import of American soybean products and the difficulty in producing varieties which suit Austrian conditions. In 1970, the Institute of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, University of Agriculture, Vienna, started to renew interest in soybean and worked out a program to develop its cultivation, aiming to insert it as a suitable leguminous plant in the crop rotation, and to benefit from this rich source of protein badly needed for animal and human nutrition