A new soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] cultivar, ‘Dadrim,’ was developed by the National Institute of Crop and Food Science (NICS). ‘Dadrim’ is characterized by its superior suitability for tofu processing and high adaptability to mechanized cultivation. This cultivar ‘Milyang374’ was developed using the pedigree method from an artificial cross made in 2012 between ‘Milyang231’ and ‘Chamol.’ Its agronomic characteristics and production stability were verified through regional adaptation trials conducted over three years (2020- 2022). ‘Dadrim’ exhibits a determinate growth habit, white flowers, and spherical seeds with a yellow seed coat and yellow hilum. It is a large-seeded variety with a 100-seed weight of 30.9 g. As a late-maturing variety, it reaches maturity around October 22. Despite a relatively short plant height, it features a high first pod height of 16 cm, making it advantageous for mechanical harvesting. ‘Dadrim’ is resistant to bacterial pustule and soybean mosaic virus and possesses excellent lodging resistance. Notably, ‘Dadrim’ demonstrates a high tofu yield of 283%, which is 67% points higher than ‘Daewonkong’. The resulting tofu has a soft texture, making it suitable for soft and silken tofu. It also received high preference scores for taste and texture in sensory evaluations. ‘Dadrim’ yielded 3.37 tons/ha, an 8% increase compared to ‘Daewonkong.’ This new variety is expected to increase farm income and advance the domestic tofu industry (Registration No. 10461).

The rice cultivar, ‘Dapum’, is a high-quality, late-maturing rice with low amylose content developed by the Chungcheongnam-do Agricultural Research and Extension Services (Yesan, Korea). Dapum was derived from a cross between Miho, a processed rice cultivar known for its cultivation stability and low amylose content, as the maternal parent, and Daohuaxing2, a high-quality aromatic rice cultivar, as the paternal parent. Subsequently, a pedigree breeding method was employed, and yield trials conducted from 2019-2020, followed by local adaptability tests from 2020-2021. As a result of the local adaptability test, the heading date of ‘Dapum’ was August 28^th, which is slower than the cultivars mainly cultivated in the Chungnam Province in Korea; therefore, it can be ripened at an appropriate temperature. The yield of milled ‘Dapum’ rice under standard fertilizer conditions was approximately 572 kg/10a, which was 15 kg/10a higher than that of Miho. The amylose content of ‘Dapum’ was 12.5%, similar to that of Miho, and the glossiness of cooked rice, which reflects its indirect eating quality, was 86.8, which was 7.0 points higher than that of Miho. The new rice cultivar, ‘Dapum’, is expected to be used in various ways, such as for cooked and processed rice, due to its low amylose content and good eating quality. Further, it has the potential to enhance the competitiveness of rice production in the Chungnam Province by diversifying the rice market, which has traditionally focused on mid-maturing, non-glutinous rice (Registration No. 10181).

Potato late blight caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans is one of the most important diseases worldwide. Developing potatoes with resistance to late blight through breeding programs is a key research interest in Korea. ‘Mangang’ was bred for late blight resistance through a breeding program at the Highland Agriculture Research Institute of National Institute of Crop Science. The population derived from the cross between ‘Atlantic’ as the female parent, which has excellent chipping quality and ‘CIP393371.159’ as the male parent, a late blight-resistant clone introduced from International Potato Center (CIP), was selected. In ‘Mangang’, the plant maturity occurs late and the growth habit is of the erect type. The tuber shape is round and eye-depth is medium. The skin color of ‘Mangang’ is light yellow; however, there are pink spots around the eyes of the tuber, and the flesh color is white. Leaf color is green and flower color is light-purple. ‘Mangang’ exhibits resistance to early blight (Alternaria solani) and leaf roll virus (PLRV). In addition, it has moderate resistance to common scab (Streptomyces scabies). The response to late blight was evaluated in a non-agrochemical treated field for five years between 2012 and 2016; ‘Mangang’ exhibited resistance to late blight. The mean AUDPC (Area Under Disease Progress Curve) values of ‘Mangang’ and ‘Atlantic’ were 165.5 and 795.8, respectively. Total tuber yield from the non-agrochemical application trial at three regions during the five years was 40.3 ton/ha; this was 40.4% higher than that from ‘Atlantic’. The dry matter content of ‘Mangang’ was 21.3%, which was slightly higher than that of ‘Atlantic’. The chip color was 66.5, and the chip processing quality of ‘Mangang’ was at a level similar to that of ‘Atlantic’ (Registration No. 9312).

Tofu is produced by mixing condensed soymilk with a coagulant. It has a low calorie and high protein and contains various important vitamins and minerals; therefore, consumption of tofu as a healthy and dietetic food has increased worldwide. For systematic application in breeding programs to increase tofu yield, evaluation of tofu characteristics is essential. To test the various characteristics of tofu, typically, a considerable amount of seeds (approximately 100 g, is required. Here, we propose a simple tofu quality test method requiring a small amount of seeds (15 g), which is 75% less than the amount needed for conventional testing. Tofu was manufactured using 20 soybean varieties with a conventional method (i.e., a tofu making machine, TM) and four simple methods: natural filtering (NF), weight pressure (WP), hand pressure (HP), and rotation machine (RM). The correlation between the five methods was assessed with respect to each tofu characteristic, and the HP and RM methods were statistically similar to the conventional methods, whereas the other methods showed differences. Regarding tofu yield, the HP and RM methods showed significantly higher correlation coefficients of 0.79 and 0.78, respectively, and the coefficient of variation between replications was also low. Therefore, the HP and RM methods were the best to easily characterize the tofu yield using a small amount of seeds. Considering the efficiency of the test, the RM method appears to be more effective than the HP method for testing multiple lines. These results will be used for the identification of quantitative trait locus/genes related to tofu quality and marker-assisted selection of breeding new soybean varieties.

The 'Misomi' is a rice variety derived from a cross between ‘Sobi’ which has adaptability of low fertilizer cultivation and SR21110 (Ilpum/Jinbu19) by the rice breeding team at National Institute of Crop Science, RDA in 2013. The heading date of ‘Misomi’ is August 14 and six days later than check variety, ‘Hwaseong’. It has 83 cm of culm length and 121 spikelets per panicle. It showed weaker cold tolerance than that of ‘Hwaseong’ during exposed to cold stress. ‘Misomi’ showed resistance to blast disease, K1, K2 and K3 race of bacterial blight and stripe virus, but susceptibility to K3a race, other viruses and planthoppers. The milled rice of this variety exhibits translucent, clear non-glutinous endosperm and short grain shape. It has low protein content (6.2%) and similar amylose content (19.4%) to that of ‘Hwaseong’. ‘Misomi’ showed better palatability index of cooked rice than that of ‘Hwaseong’. Particulary, ‘Misomi’ showed excellent processing adaptability than ‘Chucheong’ and ‘Hwaseong’ on palatability index of cold and aseptic cooked rice. Its milled rice recovery rate is similar to those of ‘Hwaseong’. However, whole grain rate of milled rice is higher than that of ‘Hwaseong’. 'Misomi' has 5.68 MT/ha of milled rice productivity in ordinary cultivation, which was 12% higher than that of ‘Hwaseong’. 'Misomi' could be adaptable to the middle plain area and Midwest coast area in Korea (Grant No. 5635).

The ‘Jungmo1017’ is a japonica rice variety developed from a cross between Suweon462 which has a good plant architecture, cold tolerance, moderately tolerant to leaf blast and bacterial blight and medium maturing habit, and Yeongdeog34 which has translucent milled rice and good milling properties, by the rice breeding team at NICS, RDA in 2011. The heading date of ‘Jungmo1017’ is August 16 and it is six days later than ‘Hwaseong’. ‘Jungmo1017’ has 65 cm of culm length which is 18 cm shorter than those of ‘Hwaseong’ and 93 spikelet per panicle. The pre-harvest sprouting rate of ‘Jungmo1017’ is 8.6% that is lower than 27.7% of ‘Hwaseong’ on local adaptability test (LAT). It showed resistance to blast diseases and moderately resistant to bacterial blight (K1 race) and stripe virus, but susceptible to other races (K2, K3 and K3a) of bacterial blight, viruses and planthoppers. The milled rice of this variety exhibits translucent, clear non-glutinous endosperm and medium short grain shape. It has better palatability index of cooked rice (0.53) than that of ‘Hwaseong’. ‘Jungmo1017’ showed lower protein content (6.4%) and amylose content (18.0%). ‘Jungmo1017’ could use aseptic-packaged cooked rice or processing cooked rice because its hardness of cooked rice is soft, setback and balance is low and palatability of cold and aseptic rice showed high score. The characters related to milling is better than those of ‘Hwaseong’. ‘Jungmo1017’ showed 5.01 MT/ha of milled rice productivity at 7 sites of middle plain, southern mid-mountainous and south-east coastal area in ordinary cultivation. ‘Jungmo1017’ could be adaptable to the middle plain area in Korea.