Scientific support of soybean production in Serbia

Dr Svetlana Balešević Tubić

Vojvodina Province

1.6 million hectares of arable land

Crops Acreages

Maize 750.000

Wheat 250.000

Sunflower 165.000

Soybean 155.000

Forage crops 75.000

Vegetables 65.000

Sugar beat 55.000

Tradition in soybean production in Vojvodina

• First historical record of soybean production in Vojvodina: before 1817

• First significant record of soybean production from 1921

• Official statistics from 1934

Soybean production guide from 1929

Vojvodina Climate

-5

0

5

10

15

20

25

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

oC mm

Vojvodina soil

1,86

9,35

58,81

28,96

1,02 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

< 1 % 1 - 2 % 2 - 3.5 % 3.5 - 5 % > 5 %

Soil humus content

Based on 90.000 soil samples (Sekulic et al. 2007)

Land owners

73%

27%

Family holdings

Holdings of legal entitles

2%

47%

29%

14%

5%

2%

1% 0%

Family holdings size

0

0 - 2

2 - 5

5 - 10

10 - 20

20 - 50

50 - 100

100

Census of Agriculture 2012 in the Republic of Serbia – First results

GMO legislation

• Cultivation of GMO soybean is forbidden

• Import of GMO products is not allowed

• Filed and lab control of suspicious fields by state authority

• Destruction of illegal fields of GMO soybean

• Several international certificated laboratories for GMO

testing

Professional support to farmers

Farmer

Agricultural extension

service

Reserch institue

extension service

Forecast reporting plant

protection service

Agricultural extension service

• 12 Extension staitions cover over 1.6 milion hectars

Agricultural extension service

• Education (winter school)

• Publications

• Trials

• Field days

• Plant protection

• Marketing of products

Institute of field and vegetable crops

• Established 75 years ago

• State research institute

Mission:

• breeding field and vegetable crops

• seed production

• technology development

• technology transfer Farmers needs

Seed produc

tion

Soybean breeding

Breeding and varieties

• Conventional breeding since 1975

• Over 100 varieties registerd in Serbia

• Over 50 varieties registered abroad

• Maturity groups: 000, 00, 0, I, II, III

• Trials all over the Vojvodina Region

Seed availability

• Seed production from pre-basic to certified seed

• Seed distribution to farmers

• Support during growing season

• Modern seed-processing equipment

• Organic seed production

Farmer education

• Extension service

• Collaboration with Vojvodina extension

services in winter schools

• Publications

• Agronomy seminar

Nitrogen

• Strong support to minimal usage of mineral fertilizers in conventional production

• Highly efficient inoculants

• Regular applications of inoculants

• Certified seed = free of charge Nitragin

Our philosophy: bag content

High quality seed

Production technology

Support and

extension

Nitrogen (Inoculants)

ha (000)

Soybean acreages in Serbia

t/ha

Soybean yield in Serbia

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

Thank you for your attention!