The practices of soil amendment and fertilization carried out over the years have allowed the improvement of the fertility in some of them in the Brazilian soils. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of soybean in response to phosphate fertilization in soil with improved fertility. The research was carried out during the 2015-2016 harvest season in a dry-land area in the municipality of São Desidério, Bahia. The experiment was arranged in randomized blocks, with five treatments and four replicates. Treatments were composed by doses of phosphate fertilizer (0, 70, 140, 210 and 280 kg P2O5 ha-1). The following variables were evaluated: plant height, height of insertion of the first pod, number of stems per plant, number of pods per plant, thousand grain weight, productivity, and the analysis of macro and micronutrients in the leaf. Soybean plants did not respond to phosphorus applied to soil with built fertility. Under the conditions of this study, phosphorus fertilization in soil with improved fertility did not promote productivity. Although the plants did not respond to foliar macro and micronutrients as a function of phosphate fertilization, there was no reduction of these in response to high doses.