A cowpea cultivar Vigna unguiculata L. Walp ‘Seonhyeon’ is a cross species between V. unguiculata ‘IT145373’ and V. unguiculata ‘IT101362’ developed at the Jeollanamdo Agricultural Research and Extension Services (JARES) in 2017. ‘Seonhyeon’ is an erect plant with an intermediate plant habit, green hypocotyls, light purple-colored corolla, heart-shaped leaflets, black seed surface, and straight, brown mature pods. The anthocyanin content of ‘Seonhyeon’ was 1,632 µg/g, and it contained seven anthocyanins, including cyanidin-3-glucoside and delphinidin-3-glucoside. The stem length of ‘Seonhyeon’ was 54 cm, which was 13 cm longer than that of the control cultivar ‘Okdang’. Its 100-seed weight was 11.8 g, which was 3.6 g lighter than that of the control cultivar. Field resistance of ‘Seonhyeon’ to leaf and systemic diseases was similar to that of the control cultivar, whereas its field resistance to lodging was slightly lower compared to that of the control cultivar. The average yield of ‘Seonhyeon’ was 2.26 ton/ha, which was 15% higher compared to that of control cultivar. Black seed coat of the ‘Seonhyeon’ cultivar is expected to contribute to species specialization as well as to development of various processed products. (Registration number: 7499)

Cheongja4’ is a black soybean cultivar developed via a cross between ‘Milyang148’ and ‘Daemang’ in 2005. F₁ and F₂ populations were grown for 2 years, and promising lines were selected using the pedigree method from F₃ to F₅. The preliminary yield trial (PYT) and advanced yield trials (AYT) were conducted from 2011 to 2012, and regional yield trial (RYT) in 7 regions was conducted from 2013 to 2015. ‘Cheongja4’ is determinate and has purple flowers, a green cotyledon, and black spherical seeds. Flowering date and maturing date were Aug. 5 and Oct. 19, respectively. With respect to its quantitative characteristics, ‘Cheongja4’ has more pods (50) and smaller seed size (30.1g/100-seed weight) than ‘Cheongja3’ (38 and 35.2g/100-seed weight). ‘Cheongja4’ was revealed to be more tolerant to pod shattering than ‘Cheongja3’ in RYT field and indoor test. ‘Cheongja4’ had high levels of resistance to bacterial pustule and soybean mosaic virus in field and inoculation test. Although its seed quality-related characteristics were similar to those of ‘Cheongja3’, it contained more anthocyanin in the seed coat; this is the main functional component of black soybean. The mean yield of ‘Cheongja4’ in RYT was 314kg/10a, 123% of the yield of ‘Cheongja3’. ‘Cheongja4’ is expected to be widely used for variable functional purposes, such as cooking with rice and the production of processed food.

A new soybean cultivar ‘Wonhyun’, was developed by mutation breeding technique using a 250 Gy gamma ray at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) in 2010. ‘Wonhyun’ has black seed coat and much better agronomic performance than original variety ‘Paldal’. Their total yield (177.1kg/10a) is much higher than that of ‘Paldal’ (126.9 kg/10a). Also, 100 seed weight of Wonhyun was 27g compared to ‘Paldal’ (13.7g). Contents of 4 essential amino acids such as aspartic acid, glutamic acid, lysine, arginine and unsaturated fatty acid including linoleic and linolenic acid have much higher than ‘Paldal’. This cultivar is good for cooking with rice as improved functional ingredient soybean.

A new soybean variety, ‘Joongmo 3009’ (Milyang 222) was developed at the National Institute of Crop Science (NICS) in 2012. ‘Joongmo 3009’ was released by pedigree selection from the cross between ‘Cheongja 2(Milyang 121)’ and ‘Daemangkong’.

It has determinate growth habit, white flower, brown pubescence, brown pod color, green seed coat, green cotyledon, spherical seed shape, oval leaf shape and large seed size (29.3 grams per 100 seeds). It was late 16 days in maturing date than the check cultivar ‘Cheongjakong’. The average yield of ‘Joongmo 3009’ was 2.91 ton per hectare, which was higher 36 percentage than the check variety, in the regional yield trials carried out in three adaptable locations of Korea from 2010 to 2012. The number of breeder’s right is ‘5474’