The Effects of Inoculation and N Fertilizer on Soybean

Soybean (Glycine Max [L] Mirril) has become an important economic crop in Ghana with a potential to changing the lives of smallholder farmers especially in the savanna zone where the bulk is produced. It is used mostly at the household level in various diets including the popular condiment known as 'dawadawa' to improve the protein needs of the people especially children and nursing mothers. The crop also has the ability to replenish soil fertility through the process of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) through rhizobia inoculation in the area where land degradation is on the increase. Due to the high level of soil fertility decline in the growing area, starter fertilizer to boost the initial growth of the crop is also recommended. It is against this background that interest in cultivation of the crop has witness tremendous increase over the last three decades. Research work on the crop has also increase within same period to make Ghana self sufficient and possibly a net exporter of the crop to the neighboring drier sub-Saharan countries.