Objective To gain an in-depth understanding of the genetic diversity of soybean landraces in Hunan Province, screen and identify superior germplasm resources with the characteristics of high-yield, high-protein, or high-oil.

Method The agronomic traits, yield composition factors, and quality traits of 187 soybean landraces collected previously were analyzed for diversity and comprehensive evaluation using coefficient of variation, genetic diversity index, principal component analysis, and so on.

Result The 187 soybean landraces in Hunan exhibited rich genetic diversity, with coefficients of variation ranging from 5.35% to 41.22%. Among them, the coefficient of variation for seed number per plant was the highest, while that of crude protein content was the lowest. Among all testing landraces, the crude protein content ranged from 35.36% to 48.98%, and the crude fat content ranged from 15.78% to 22.85%. The results of principal component analysis showed that the accumulative contribution rate of the four principal component factors reached 81.722%. Cluster analysis divided the 187 soybean landraces into five clusters. Cluster I (including two landraces) had higher pod number and seed number per plant, cluster II (including 44 landraces) had higher crude fat content, cluster III (including 41 landraces) had higher 100-seed weight and crude protein content. The comprehensive evaluation results indicated that the top three soybean landraces in terms of score were ‘Qiyuedou’ ‘Dalvpidou’ ‘Xiang 72-304’, which had potential value as parents for creating high-quality and high-yield germplasm resources in Hunan and can be considered for utilization.

Conclusion This study provides useful references for the innovative utilization and breeding of new soybean germplasm resources and varieties with high-quality and high-yield in Hunan, which is helpful to guide subsequent in-depth research and breeding work.