Efficiency of visual selection of agronomic traits for soybean production in a protected environment

The objectives of this work were to evaluate the efficiency of visual selection in soybean under a protected environment, to determine if the ability of an evaluator to select visually depends on their experience with the crop, and to study the efficiency of visual selection of traits associated with productivity to obtain income gains. For that, three soybean populations (F₃, F₄, and F₅) were used, composed of 20 families each, conducted in a greenhouse in a randomized block design, with three replicates and experimental units, two plants per pot. In these, five evaluators with different levels of experience with the crop made the visual selection for each plant. Evaluators differ in their ability to identify more productive plants, but this ability is not associated with the evaluator's experience with the crop. In the search for more productive soybean plants, the number of pods per plant is the characteristic that most assists visual selection, provided there is uniformity of experimental conditions and genetic variability.