New varieties bolster the Great Granary: Tainan No. 11 black soybean yields 30% more; hard corn Tainan No. 29 grows on dew alone!

To reach the goal of adding 30,000 hectares of coarse grain planting area within four years, the Tainan Improvement Station of the Council of Agriculture recently developed new varieties of green-kernel black soybean and hard corn. Among them, the new Tainan No. 11 black soybean yields 30% more than existing varieties and is better suited to organic cultivation; the new hard corn Tainan No. 29 is drought-tolerant and can grow without irrigation, with yields also 10% higher than ordinary hard corn. The development of these two crops is expected to boost farmers' willingness to plant and is also hoped to meet the goals of the Great Granary plan.

Green-kernel black soybean Tainan No. 11 yields 3080 kg per hectare, nearly 30% more than Tainan No. 3

According to statistics from the Agriculture and Food Agency, under the Great Granary plan, soybeans, one of the main crops, are expected to increase by 13,000 hectares in the 109th year of the Republic of China calendar, with a target of 5,000 hectares each in central and southern Taiwan, China. To increase farmers' willingness to plant, the Tainan Agricultural Improvement Station used the existing Tainan No. 3 as the female parent to develop the new Tainan No. 11. Wu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Tainan Agricultural Improvement Station responsible for breeding, pointed out that the new Tainan No. 11 can yield 3080 kg per hectare, 28.7% higher than existing varieties. Its leaf-shedding at maturity is also very good, making it well suited to mechanized harvesting, and with good antioxidant capacity, improved disease resistance and higher yields, it is more suitable for organic planting. In addition to organic subsidies, farmers can benefit by more than 120000 yuan per hectare from planting it, making it very attractive.