Progress to September 2003
This project has established formal links between the Vietnam Agricultural Sciences Institute, the Institute of Agricultural Science, Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry and informal links with the Hanoi #2 Agricultural University, the Oil Plant Institute and Can Tho University in Vietnam, and CSIRO Tropical Agriculture/Plant Industry and James Cook University in Australia.

The thrust in Vietnam was to improve varieties and production methods for summer soybean production in the northern hill and mountain regions, which are the source of more than 40% of national production, in the Red River Delta which produces about 20% of the crop, mostly in winter, and in the upland regions of southern Vietnam, which produces about 20%.

There are several key elements to the project. The first was to introduce and evaluate elite varieties from the Australian program for yield and adaptation in Vietnam. Concurrently, physiological and agronomic research was undertaken to explore and where possible to minimise limitations to improving adaptation and increasing yield in Vietnam. The research in Australia complemented that in Vietnam, with applied varietal improvement emphasis on tropical adaptation, tolerance to weathering and food quality attributes. Basic research focused on strategies to broaden the gene pool, especially for tolerance to environmental stresses and use of the 'long juvenile' trait to extend duration without increasing photoperiod sensitivity.

The use of extreme short-duration varieties was confirmed as a key limitation to yield in the north of Vietnam. Hitherto, short duration has been necessary to achieve the low daylength sensitivity necessary for one variety to be adapted to the spring, summer and winter cropping seasons. The necessity for one variety to be reasonably adapted to all three cropping seasons was in turn required to ensure supplies of fresh planting seed, because of the short time that soybean seed remains viable under local conditions.

During the project, varieties were introduced to Vietnam with medium duration, but with appropriate daylength sensitivity that enabled successful cropping in all three seasons. The combination of varieties with high yield potential and medium duration led to increases in yield over that of check varieties of up to 98, 34 and 49 per cent in the spring, summer and winter seasons, respectively. As a result of these findings, it is likely that one or more lines introduced through the project will be released for commercial production in Vietnam.

The saturated soil culture technique for irrigation of soybean and intercropping soybean with paddy rice was also introduced and tested in the lowland conditions of the Red River delta. Yield increased by up to 250 per cent through the combination of this technology with introduced varieties with higher yield potential.

The research in Australia identified and introduced to the breeding program new sources of tolerances to cold, drought and pre-harvest weathering of grain. In a linkage with the national breeding program in Australia a new tropical variety, YY, was released for commercial production. New technologies to identify genes responsible for drought response and for culinary quality were also developed. For the first time, genetic material from the wild perennial relatives was introduced into soybean through somatic hybridisation.

Key outputs from the project include: improved varieties and agronomic management; enhanced understanding of constraints to wider adaptation and higher yields; and new techniques for enhancing the germplasm base available to breeders. In addition to the direct benefits from the project to both the Vietnamese and Australian researchers, the skill base of the Vietnamese researchers was improved through training visits to Australia, and the training of several postgraduate research students in Vietnamese universities. In addition, the project assisted two project staff to apply to undertake research in Australia and another to apply for higher degree studies in the USA .

This project established formal links between the Vietnam Agricultural Sciences Institute, the Institute of Agricultural Science, Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry and informal links to the Hanoi #2 Agricultural University, the Oil Plant Institute and Can Tho University in Vietnam, and CSIRO Tropical Agriculture/Plant Industry and James Cook University in Australia.

The thrust in Vietnam was to improve varieties and production methods for summer soybean production in the northern hill and mountain regions which are the source of more than 40% of national production, in the Red River delta which produces about 20% of the crop, mostly in winter, and in the upland regions of southern Vietnam, which produces about 20%.

There were several key elements to the project. The first was to introduce and evaluate elite varieties from the Australian program for yield and adaptation in Vietnam. Concurrently, physiological and agronomic research was undertaken to explore and where possible to minimise limitations to improving adaptation and increasing yield in Vietnam. The research in Australia complemented that in Vietnam, with applied varietal improvement emphasis on tropical adaptation, tolerance to weathering and food quality attributes. Basic research focussed on strategies to broaden the genepool, especially for tolerance to environmental stresses and use of the 'long juvenile' trait to extend duration without increasing photoperiod sensitivity.

The use of extreme-short duration varieties was confirmed as a key limitation to yield in the north of Vietnam. Hitherto, short duration has been necessary to achieve the low daylength sensitivity necessary for one variety to be adapted to the spring, summer and winter cropping seasons. The necessity for one variety to be reasonably adapted to all three cropping seasons was in turn required to ensure supplies of fresh planting seed, because of the short time that soybean seed remains viable under local conditions.

During the project, varieties were introduced to Vietnam with medium duration, but with appropriate daylength sensitivity such that they could be successfully cropped in all three seasons. The combination of varieties with high yield potential and medium duration led to increases in yield over that of check varieties of up to 98%, 34% and 49% in the spring, summer and winter seasons, respectively. As a result of these findings, it is likely that one or more lines introduced through the project will be released for commercial production in Vietnam.

The saturated soil culture technique for irrigation of soybean and intercropping soybean with paddy rice was also introduced and tested in the lowland conditions of the Red River delta. Yield increased by up to two and a half fold through the combination of this technology with introduced varieties with higher yield potential.

The research in Australia identified and introduced to the breeding program new sources of tolerances to cold, drought and pre-harvest weathering of grain. In a linkage with the national breeding program in Australia, a new tropical variety, YY, was released for commercial production. New technologies to identify genes responsible for drought response and for culinary quality were also developed. For the first time, genetic material from the wild perennial relatives was introduced into soybean through somatic hybridisation.

Key outputs from the project have therefore been improved varieties and agronomic management, enhanced understanding of constraints to wider adaptation and higher yields, and new techniques for enhancing the germplasm base available to breeders. In addition to the direct benefits from the project to both the Vietnamese and Australian researchers, the skills base of the Vietnamese researchers was improved through four short-term and one long-term training visits to Australia, and the training of several postgraduate research students in Vietnamese universities. In addition, the project facilitated applications that appear likely to be successful for two project staff to come to Australia and one to the USA for higher degree studies.

Extension phase (18 months)

The extension addresses four specific activities that were identified by the formal review of the first phase of the project as warranting more work:

1. Long Juvenile Trait.
The long juvenile (LJ) trait extends the time to flowering by about 10 days, depending on temperature, without affecting sensitivity to photoperiod. When inserted into photoperiod-insensitive, short duration cultivars, it has the potential to extend crop duration and increase yield potential, without introducing photoperiod sensitivity. Such lines have potentially wider adaptation over seasons and latitudes. In the first phase of the project, the line 95389 was derived by combining the LJ trait with an early maturing variety from Thailand. It remains unclear whether different alleles exist for the trait and if so, the nature of its inheritance. Five soybean genotypes with potentially different sources of LJ alleles have now been identified. Hybrid crosses have been made between the 5 putative LJ sources and different short duration lines, and grown through the F1 generation in Brisbane. F2 plants of 15 of the crosses are now being evaluated in the field in NQ, as part of a research training visit to Townsville. The modelling component on regional & seasonal effects on phenology is being undertaken as part of a research training visit to Brisbane.

2. Germplasm Exchange
As part of the project extension, a set of advanced breeding lines from the Australian program has been provided to collaborating Vietnamese organisations for inclusion in ongoing national and regional varietal programs. Seed of 50 advanced lines, selected from several populations in the CSIRO program on the basis of their potential utility in Vietnam, was multiplied and delivered to VASI, HAU, IAS and CAFTNU in November 2004. Evaluation of these lines is now underway outside the project, in the context of the ongoing soybean improvement programs within each of these organisations.

3. Seed Production
The project review recommended the development of a seed production plan to assist the multiplication and supply to farmers of high quality planting seed of improved varieties. During the first phase of the project, several lines were identified as potentially suitable for release to Vietnamese farmers. VASI has now decided to release line 95389 as 'DT21'. Apart from its high yield potential, an advantage of this variety is that it can be grown year-round. This simplifies the supply of good quality seed from one season to the next. Seed production of DT21 was initiated in Ha Tay province, with a small plot of winter season production contracted to the Ung Hoa Cooperative. In addition, seed production organizations (communes, cooperatives and other NGOs) have been lined up in another 10 provinces to undertake seed production once sufficient seed supplies become available. The immediate focus is on Ha Tay and Hung Yen provinces, where there is potential for irrigated winter season production. Smaller areas of winter crop will be targetted in Ha Nam and Bac Ninh provinces.

4. Training Visits
Mr Vu Ngoc Thang, Lecturer, Industrial Crops Department, Hanoi Agricultural University, is in Townsville on a project training visit from July 25, 2005 to October 13. Thang is located at CSIRO Davies Laboratory, and is working on the inheritance of the LJ trait in several different putative germplasm sources. He is conducting field research at the QDPI Ayr Research Station.

Dr Tran Thi Truong, Head, Soybean Department, LRDC, VASI, is in Brisbane on a project training visit from July 25, 2005 to October 13. Truong is located at the Qld Biosciences Centre, and is working on adaptation analysis, particularly the utility and robustness of phenology modelling in predicting the suitability of cultivars to fit the growing window in different seasons and locations, based on analysis of the performance of isolines for the LJ trait.

Progress to September 2003
This project has established formal links between the Vietnam Agricultural Sciences Institute, the Institute of Agricultural Science, Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry and informal links with the Hanoi #2 Agricultural University, the Oil Plant Institute and Can Tho University in Vietnam, and CSIRO Tropical Agriculture/Plant Industry and James Cook University in Australia.

The thrust in Vietnam was to improve varieties and production methods for summer soybean production in the northern hill and mountain regions, which are the source of more than 40% of national production, in the Red River Delta which produces about 20% of the crop, mostly in winter, and in the upland regions of southern Vietnam, which produces about 20%.

There are several key elements to the project. The first was to introduce and evaluate elite varieties from the Australian program for yield and adaptation in Vietnam. Concurrently, physiological and agronomic research was undertaken to explore and where possible to minimise limitations to improving adaptation and increasing yield in Vietnam. The research in Australia complemented that in Vietnam, with applied varietal improvement emphasis on tropical adaptation, tolerance to weathering and food quality attributes. Basic research focused on strategies to broaden the gene pool, especially for tolerance to environmental stresses and use of the 'long juvenile' trait to extend duration without increasing photoperiod sensitivity.

The use of extreme short-duration varieties was confirmed as a key limitation to yield in the north of Vietnam. Hitherto, short duration has been necessary to achieve the low daylength sensitivity necessary for one variety to be adapted to the spring, summer and winter cropping seasons. The necessity for one variety to be reasonably adapted to all three cropping seasons was in turn required to ensure supplies of fresh planting seed, because of the short time that soybean seed remains viable under local conditions.

During the project, varieties were introduced to Vietnam with medium duration, but with appropriate daylength sensitivity that enabled successful cropping in all three seasons. The combination of varieties with high yield potential and medium duration led to increases in yield over that of check varieties of up to 98, 34 and 49 per cent in the spring, summer and winter seasons, respectively. As a result of these findings, it is likely that one or more lines introduced through the project will be released for commercial production in Vietnam.

The saturated soil culture technique for irrigation of soybean and intercropping soybean with paddy rice was also introduced and tested in the lowland conditions of the Red River delta. Yield increased by up to 250 per cent through the combination of this technology with introduced varieties with higher yield potential.

The research in Australia identified and introduced to the breeding program new sources of tolerances to cold, drought and pre-harvest weathering of grain. In a linkage with the national breeding program in Australia a new tropical variety, YY, was released for commercial production. New technologies to identify genes responsible for drought response and for culinary quality were also developed. For the first time, genetic material from the wild perennial relatives was introduced into soybean through somatic hybridisation.

Key outputs from the project include: improved varieties and agronomic management; enhanced understanding of constraints to wider adaptation and higher yields; and new techniques for enhancing the germplasm base available to breeders. In addition to the direct benefits from the project to both the Vietnamese and Australian researchers, the skill base of the Vietnamese researchers was improved through training visits to Australia, and the training of several postgraduate research students in Vietnamese universities. In addition, the project assisted two project staff to apply to undertake research in Australia and another to apply for higher degree studies in the USA .

This project established formal links between the Vietnam Agricultural Sciences Institute, the Institute of Agricultural Science, Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry and informal links to the Hanoi #2 Agricultural University, the Oil Plant Institute and Can Tho University in Vietnam, and CSIRO Tropical Agriculture/Plant Industry and James Cook University in Australia.

The thrust in Vietnam was to improve varieties and production methods for summer soybean production in the northern hill and mountain regions which are the source of more than 40% of national production, in the Red River delta which produces about 20% of the crop, mostly in winter, and in the upland regions of southern Vietnam, which produces about 20%.

There were several key elements to the project. The first was to introduce and evaluate elite varieties from the Australian program for yield and adaptation in Vietnam. Concurrently, physiological and agronomic research was undertaken to explore and where possible to minimise limitations to improving adaptation and increasing yield in Vietnam. The research in Australia complemented that in Vietnam, with applied varietal improvement emphasis on tropical adaptation, tolerance to weathering and food quality attributes. Basic research focussed on strategies to broaden the genepool, especially for tolerance to environmental stresses and use of the 'long juvenile' trait to extend duration without increasing photoperiod sensitivity.

The use of extreme-short duration varieties was confirmed as a key limitation to yield in the north of Vietnam. Hitherto, short duration has been necessary to achieve the low daylength sensitivity necessary for one variety to be adapted to the spring, summer and winter cropping seasons. The necessity for one variety to be reasonably adapted to all three cropping seasons was in turn required to ensure supplies of fresh planting seed, because of the short time that soybean seed remains viable under local conditions.

During the project, varieties were introduced to Vietnam with medium duration, but with appropriate daylength sensitivity such that they could be successfully cropped in all three seasons. The combination of varieties with high yield potential and medium duration led to increases in yield over that of check varieties of up to 98%, 34% and 49% in the spring, summer and winter seasons, respectively. As a result of these findings, it is likely that one or more lines introduced through the project will be released for commercial production in Vietnam.

The saturated soil culture technique for irrigation of soybean and intercropping soybean with paddy rice was also introduced and tested in the lowland conditions of the Red River delta. Yield increased by up to two and a half fold through the combination of this technology with introduced varieties with higher yield potential.

The research in Australia identified and introduced to the breeding program new sources of tolerances to cold, drought and pre-harvest weathering of grain. In a linkage with the national breeding program in Australia, a new tropical variety, YY, was released for commercial production. New technologies to identify genes responsible for drought response and for culinary quality were also developed. For the first time, genetic material from the wild perennial relatives was introduced into soybean through somatic hybridisation.

Key outputs from the project have therefore been improved varieties and agronomic management, enhanced understanding of constraints to wider adaptation and higher yields, and new techniques for enhancing the germplasm base available to breeders. In addition to the direct benefits from the project to both the Vietnamese and Australian researchers, the skills base of the Vietnamese researchers was improved through four short-term and one long-term training visits to Australia, and the training of several postgraduate research students in Vietnamese universities. In addition, the project facilitated applications that appear likely to be successful for two project staff to come to Australia and one to the USA for higher degree studies.

Extension phase (18 months)

The extension addresses four specific activities that were identified by the formal review of the first phase of the project as warranting more work:

1. Long Juvenile Trait.
The long juvenile (LJ) trait extends the time to flowering by about 10 days, depending on temperature, without affecting sensitivity to photoperiod. When inserted into photoperiod-insensitive, short duration cultivars, it has the potential to extend crop duration and increase yield potential, without introducing photoperiod sensitivity. Such lines have potentially wider adaptation over seasons and latitudes. In the first phase of the project, the line 95389 was derived by combining the LJ trait with an early maturing variety from Thailand. It remains unclear whether different alleles exist for the trait and if so, the nature of its inheritance. Five soybean genotypes with potentially different sources of LJ alleles have now been identified. Hybrid crosses have been made between the 5 putative LJ sources and different short duration lines, and grown through the F1 generation in Brisbane. F2 plants of 15 of the crosses are now being evaluated in the field in NQ, as part of a research training visit to Townsville. The modelling component on regional & seasonal effects on phenology is being undertaken as part of a research training visit to Brisbane.

2. Germplasm Exchange
As part of the project extension, a set of advanced breeding lines from the Australian program has been provided to collaborating Vietnamese organisations for inclusion in ongoing national and regional varietal programs. Seed of 50 advanced lines, selected from several populations in the CSIRO program on the basis of their potential utility in Vietnam, was multiplied and delivered to VASI, HAU, IAS and CAFTNU in November 2004. Evaluation of these lines is now underway outside the project, in the context of the ongoing soybean improvement programs within each of these organisations.

3. Seed Production
The project review recommended the development of a seed production plan to assist the multiplication and supply to farmers of high quality planting seed of improved varieties. During the first phase of the project, several lines were identified as potentially suitable for release to Vietnamese farmers. VASI has now decided to release line 95389 as 'DT21'. Apart from its high yield potential, an advantage of this variety is that it can be grown year-round. This simplifies the supply of good quality seed from one season to the next. Seed production of DT21 was initiated in Ha Tay province, with a small plot of winter season production contracted to the Ung Hoa Cooperative. In addition, seed production organizations (communes, cooperatives and other NGOs) have been lined up in another 10 provinces to undertake seed production once sufficient seed supplies become available. The immediate focus is on Ha Tay and Hung Yen provinces, where there is potential for irrigated winter season production. Smaller areas of winter crop will be targetted in Ha Nam and Bac Ninh provinces.

4. Training Visits
Mr Vu Ngoc Thang, Lecturer, Industrial Crops Department, Hanoi Agricultural University, is in Townsville on a project training visit from July 25, 2005 to October 13. Thang is located at CSIRO Davies Laboratory, and is working on the inheritance of the LJ trait in several different putative germplasm sources. He is conducting field research at the QDPI Ayr Research Station.

Dr Tran Thi Truong, Head, Soybean Department, LRDC, VASI, is in Brisbane on a project training visit from July 25, 2005 to October 13. Truong is located at the Qld Biosciences Centre, and is working on adaptation analysis, particularly the utility and robustness of phenology modelling in predicting the suitability of cultivars to fit the growing window in different seasons and locations, based on analysis of the performance of isolines for the LJ trait.