Soybean experts explain how crops are adapting to changing world

PINE BELT, Miss. (WDAM) – Soybeans are an important crop not only to Mississippi, but the nation as a whole.

Changes in farming technology, technique and long-term weather patterns all play a part in how modern growing practices differ from older ones.

Scientists have said they know that increasing yield and productivity is crucial to matching increased demand and an increasing global population.

Currently, researchers with Mississippi State University, like Nuwan Wijewardane, are exploring ways to enable soybean crops to adapt better to climate change.

“(W)hat we’re gonna do is study the influence of these stresses on soybean yield and then try to identify if there are any markers,” Wijewardane said. “Our responsibility is to building up this resilience by identifying varieties where microbes than can help to build up this resilience in the soybeans”,

Soybean growers in the Pine Belt, like Stevie Sanford, said that maximizing efficiency while reducing expenses and overhead is crucial to maintaining a successful operation.

Last year’s unusually long drought may have been a symptom of a changing climate right here in South Mississippi.

“Last year was probably the worst year that I’ve ever seen,” Sanford said. “The second one to that would have been in the early 1970′s when it just didn’t rain. In the early 70′s, we gathered our crop and I think we got about eight bushels per acre. This past year, we had about the same thing.

“In the farming business, you gotta know history repeats itself, and every now and then, you’ll have a bad year.”

Sanford and his family have grown soybeans in the Pine Belt for 54 years.

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