Early maturing drought-resistant soybean variety of intensive type Kikhara

The early maturing drought-resistant soybean variety of the intensive type Kikhara was de-veloped as a result of individual selection in F4 from the hybrid combination Slavia × Zong Nong 25 on dif-ferentiating backgrounds for the traits of increased cold tolerance, reduced response to day length, and in-creased resistance to lodging. According to the results of competitive variety trials in 2020–2024, the variety Kikhara with an average yield of 3.09 t/ha exceeded the standard variety Slavia by 0.50 t/ha. Plant height at the latitude of Krasnodar (45°) is 69–111 cm. Semide-terminant medium-sized bush type of the variety Kikhara provides increased resistance to lodging of plants under excessive moisture and overloading of beans. Reduced photoperiod sensitivity and increased frost and cold resistance up to minus 5 °C make the variety Kikhara suitable for very early sowing dates. Such physiological and genetic traits determine its po-tential attractiveness for agricultural producers not only in the arid regions of south of Russia, but also un-der intensive irrigated cultivation in soybean produc-ing farms of the North Caucasus, Central Black Earth and Lower Volga regions of the Russian Federation.