Effect of Soil Practice on Photosynthesis, Grain Yield and Quality of Soyabean

The factor in favor of increasing the cultivation of soybean in Poland is its good adaptation to drought periods, therefore mainly for environmental and economic reasons, in addition to conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT) and zero tillage (NT) are practiced in the cultivation of this species. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of three tillage systems (conventional - CT, reduced - RT, no-tillage - NT) on productivity, seed quality and selected parameters of gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence of soybean (cv. Merlin) under various hydrothermal conditions over the years of the research. A field experiment was carried out in 2017–2019 in Boguchwała (49^o59'49'' N, 21^o56'42'' E), Poland. In the soybean leaf higher values of fluorescence parameters were obtained in CT in comparison to RT and NT, but these dependence were only a trend. Lower values of the fluorescence parameters in NT indicate a stronger effect of stress factors on plants during their growth compared to CT and RT. In all the studied developmental stages, the net photosynthetic rate (Pn) in NT was lower compared to CT and RT. Soybeans yielded significantly higher in CT than in NT. However, no significant differences in the yield level were found between CT and RT, as well as RT and NT. Significantly lower protein content in seeds was found in NT than CT, while the oil content was significantly higher in NT than CT. Higher content of P, K, Mg and Ca in soybeans was found for RT compared to CT and NT