Research Project
Full description Mungbean (Vigna radiata [L.] Wilczek) is a short-duration summer legume crop grown in Australia's northern grains region, as a rotation crop within cereal-based systems. Yield inconsistency-averaging 0.9 t/ha against a target of 2 t/ha-has limited the industry and gaps in understanding optimal agronomy, nutrition, and irrigation to achieve higher yields have made managing the crop difficult. This project has combined a series of field trials and controlled environment experiments investigated the impact of sowing time, environmental stress, and management practices. Findings have shown mungbean are highly sensitive to their environment, especially during flowering and pod fill, the critical period for yield determination. Summer sowing with adequate soil moisture and follow up rainfall or irrigation consistently produced higher yields than spring planting due to environmental conditions during this critical period. The development of the APSIM Next Generation mungbean model to simulate crop responses under varied conditions, offers a reliable decision-support tool for improved agronomic management of mungbeans such as time of sowing. A better physiological and agronomic understanding of mungbean can significantly reduce yield gaps, stabilise production, and build grower confidence, positioning mungbean as a more reliable and productive crop choice.