CUHK International Soybean Research Center

Soybean is an environmentally friendly and nutrition-rich crop, essential for climate-smart agriculture and human nutrition. To improve climate resilience and the nutritional value of soybeans, international efforts are critical to decoding the complicated multi-omics atlas and mining key factors for further utilization. In this project, we established international collaborations to facilitate data sharing, leading to the identification of key genes regulating important agronomic traits, such as growth habit, root architecture, nutrition acquisition, and stress tolerance. We also developed molecular markers to accelerate soybean breeding. The successfully developed Longhuang soybeans have benefited sustainable agriculture and increased farmers’ income.

From 2016 to 2024, the cumulative planting area of ​​Longhuang series soybeans exceeded 1.5 million mu, and it is estimated that the increased yield has brought local farmers an additional income of RMB 120 million.