Researchers at the University of Illinois have found that reducing the number of leaves on soybean plants can increase crop yield by eight percent. In replicated trials on the Urbana campus, researchers removed up to one third of the emerging leaves on soybeans to boost yield.
Project lead Praveen Kumar, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the U of I, says producing more food without using more land is vital.
“We are probably maxed out in terms of available arable lands, so we really need a different strategy to increase productivity.”