The SOYNUT project proposal was created in response to market demands for increasing the nutritive value of food. The main project goal is soybean germplasm’s nutritive grain quality evaluation in changing weather conditions. The research methodology includes conventional soybean cultivation during a three-year field experiment and modern analytical methods of phenotyping grain nutritive quality (grain protein content, individual amino acids, grain oil content and individual fatty acids) for a maximum of 55 soybean genotypes. The SOYNUT project members are scientists from the Agricultural Institute Osijek and the Faculty of Food Technology Osijek, making an interdisciplinary research team.
The main project result will be the construction of a platform for improving the nutritive value of food under climate change. The platform will consist of two parts: 1) the development of soybean cultivars particularly suitable for specific use as raw materials in the food industry and animal feed production, and 2) increasing the general population’s awareness of the nutritive value of soybeans as a food and raw material. Planned project activities will result in a database of researched grain properties. The stability of investigated grain properties will be assessed and the available soybean germplasm will be evaluated to select parental components for breeding nutritively superior cultivars. By promoting the health benefits of soy consumption, a contribution will be made to increasing the general population’s awareness of its nutritive value. Furthermore, the project will intensify interdisciplinary scientific research and professional work with the existing infrastructure capacities of the Agricultural Institute Osijek and ensure the development and strengthening of its scientific staff.