Food security, lowering the risk of climate change and meeting the increasing demand for energy will increasingly be critical challenges in the years to come. Producing sustainably is therefore becoming central in agriculture and food systems. Legume crops could play an important role in this context by delivering multiple services in line with sustainability principles. In addition to serving as fundamental, worldwide source of high-quality food and feed, legumes contribute to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, as they release 5–7 times less GHG per unit area compared with other crops; allow the sequestration of carbon in soils with values estimated from 7.21 g kg−1 DM, 23.6 versus 21.8 g C kg−1 year; and induce a saving of fossil energy inputs in the system thanks to N fertilizer reduction, corresponding to 277 kg ha−1 of CO2 per year. Legumes could also be competitive crops and, due to their environmental and socioeconomic benefits, could be introduced in modern cropping systems to increase crop diversity and reduce use of external inputs. They also perform well in conservation systems, intercropping systems, which are very important in developing countries as well as in low-input and low-yield farming systems. Legumes fix the atmospheric nitrogen, release in the soil high-quality organic matter and facilitate soil nutrients’ circulation and water retention. Based on these multiple functions, legume crops have high potential for conservation agriculture, being functional either as growing crop or as crop residue.

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Multiple benefits of legumes for agriculture sustainability: an overview

The new Green Revolution: Sustainable intensification of agriculture by intercropping

There is a great demand for high-protein materials for livestock feed in Europe and European agriculture has a deficit of about 70% high-protein materials of which 87% is met by imported soybean and soy meal. This reflects the fact that grain legumes are currently under represented in European agriculture and produced on only 1.5% of the arable land in Europe compared with 14.5% on a worldwide basis. Several grain legumes have the potential to replace at least some of the soya currently used in the diets of monogastric animals, ruminants, and fish. There are also opportunities for greater use of legumes in new foods. Here we review the contribution of ecosystem services by grain legumes in European agriculture starting with provisioning services in terms of food and feed and moving on to the contribution they make to both regulating and supporting services which are in part due to the diversity which these crops bring to cropping systems. We explore the need to understand grain legume production on the time scale of a rotation rather than a cropping season in order to value and manage the agronomic challenges of weed, pests, and diseases alongside the maintenance or improvement of soil structure, soil organic matter, and nutrient cycling. A review of policy interventions to support grain legumes reveals that until very recently these have failed to make a difference in Europe. We contrast the European picture with the interventions that have allowed the development of grain legume production in both Canada and Australia. Whether farmers choose to grow more legumes will depend on market opportunities, the development of supply chains, and policy support as well as technical improvements of grain legume production such as breeding of new varieties and management development to improve yield stability. However, to really increase the production of grain legumes in Europe, the issues are far more wide reaching than agronomy or subsidy and require a fundamental rethinking of value chains to move grain legumes from being niche products to mainstream commodities.

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Grain Legume Production and Use in European Agricultural Systems

Global climate is changing more rapidly than ever, threatening plant growth and productivity while exerting considerable direct and indirect effects on the quality and quantity of plant nutrients. This review focuses on the global impact of climate change on the nutritional value of plant foods. It showcases the existing evidence linking the effects of climate change factors on crop nutrition and the concentration of nutrients in edible plant parts. It focuses on the effect of elevated CO2 (eCO2), elevated temperature (eT), salinity, waterlogging and drought stresses, and what is known regarding their direct and indirect influence on nutrient availability. Furthermore, it provides possible strategies to preserve the nutritional composition of plant foods under changing climates. Climate change has an impact on the accumulation of minerals and protein in crop plants, with eCO2 being the underlying factor of most of the reported changes. The effects are clearly dependent on the type, intensity and duration of the imposed stress, plant genotype and developmental stage. Strong interactions (both positive and negative) can be found between individual climatic factors and soil availability of nitrogen (N), potassium (K), iron (Fe) and phosphorous (P). The development of future interventions to ensure that the world's population has access to plentiful, safe and nutritious food may need to rely on breeding for nutrients under the context of climate change, including legumes in cropping systems, better farm management practices and utilization of microbial inoculants that enhance nutrient availability.

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Preserving the nutritional quality of crop plants under a changing climate: importance and strategies

Intensive agriculture is based on the use of high-energy inputs and quality planting materials with assured irrigation, but it has failed to assure agricultural sustainability because of creation of ecological imbalance and degradation of natural resources. On the other hand, intercropping systems, also known as mixed cropping or polyculture, a traditional farming practice with diversified crop cultivation, uses comparatively low inputs and improves the quality of the agro-ecosystem. Intensification of crops can be done spatially and temporally by the adoption of the intercropping system targeting future need. Intercropping ensures multiple benefits like enhancement of yield, environmental security, production sustainability and greater ecosystem services. In intercropping, two or more crop species are grown concurrently as they coexist for a significant part of the crop cycle and interact among themselves and agro-ecosystems. Legumes as component crops in the intercropping system play versatile roles like biological N fixation and soil quality improvement, additional yield output including protein yield, and creation of functional diversity. But growing two or more crops together requires additional care and management for the creation of less competition among the crop species and efficient utilization of natural resources. Research evidence showed beneficial impacts of a properly managed intercropping system in terms of resource utilization and combined yield of crops grown with low-input use. The review highlights the principles and management of an intercropping system and its benefits and usefulness as a low-input agriculture for food and environmental security.

Intercropping—A Low Input Agricultural Strategy for Food and Environmental Security

Crop acquisition of phosphorus, iron and zinc from soil in cereal/legume intercropping systems: a critical review

The invention belongs to the technical field of crop cultivation and provides a corn and peanut intercropped planting mode for grain yield stabilizing and oil production increase 1-4 rows of peanuts are intercropped at intervals of every two rows of corns in a strip-shaped mode, namely the row ratio of the corns to the peanuts is 2:(1-4); every two rows of corns and 1-4 rows of peanuts form an intercropping combined zone, the zone width of the intercropping combined zone is 200 cm; each intercropping combined zone starts from the corn rows, every two rows of corns and 1-4 rows of peanuts are sequentially arranged, the row spacing of every two rows of corns is 60 cm, the row spacing between each corn row and the adjacent peanut row is 40-70 cm, the row spacing of every two adjacent peanut rows is 20-60 cm, the plant spacing of the corns is 10-16 cm, and the hole spacing of the peanuts is 20-40 cm In the corn and peanut intercropped planting mode, the corn yield is basically equal to the yield of singly-cultured corns, the amplitude of yield variation is within the range of +/- 3%, accordingly the purpose of peanut production increase while corn yield stabilizing is achieved under the condition that no additional land is input, namely groundnut kernels and peanut vines are 'obtained without effort', and the contradiction of contention for grain and oil land in our country can be effectively relieved

Corn and peanut intercropped planting mode for grain yield stabilizing and oil production increase

The invention belongs to the technical field of corn and peanut cultivation, and particularly relates to a fresh corn and fresh peanut intercropping planting mode for a medium-and-low-yield field in a suburban area. According to the method, the effect of double intercropping in one season is achieved, and harvesting is carried out in different periods. By utilizing the characteristic that fresh corn is harvested one month earlier than fresh nuts, later-period growth of the intercropped peanuts is successfully protected against the shading influence from the corn, and the border row advantage of later-period growth is achieved. By carrying out harvesting in different periods and utilizing the marginal benefit, namely, complementation of space-time ecological niches, the yield of single plants of the intercropped peanuts is stabilized and increased, the corn and peanut intercropping system increases the yield and benefit and improves the quality to a higher extent, the balanced yield increase of grain and oil and the mutual benefit are achieved, the soil environment of the medium-and-low-yield field is improved, the planting industry structure of the medium-and-low-yield field in the suburban area is improved, urban agriculture is developed, the output benefit of the medium-and-low-yield field is increased, and the income of suburban farmers is increased.

Fresh corn and fresh peanut intercropping planting mode for medium-and-low-yield field in suburban area

The invention discloses a photo-thermal controllable multilayer liftable cultivation rack for wheat-maize seedling cultivation, which relates to the technical field of seedling cultivation. The cultivation rack includes a damping base, load bearing plates and cultivation boxes. Side plates are respectively fixed on the two sides above the damping base, and the side plates are riveted to the damping base. The load bearing plates are installed in the middle above the damping base. The cultivation boxes are arranged on the load bearing plates respectively. Electric push rods are respectively installed on the two sides under each load bearing plate. Sliders are fixed to the two sides of each load bearing plate. A roof is installed above the load bearing plates. Lighting lamps are fixed above each cultivation box. Limit blocks are respectively arranged on the left and right sides of each cultivation box. Water pumps are respectively installed on the two sides of the top of the roof. A waterpipe is arranged to the lower right of each water pump. The water pipes and the water pumps are respectively in flanged connection. A water tank is fixed at the bottom of each water pipe. The beneficial effect is that the space utilization rate is improved through the setting of multiple layers of load bearing plates.

Photo-thermal controllable multilayer liftable cultivation rack for wheat-maize seedling cultivation

The utility model provides a gas device is got to farmland gaseous emission volume of measurationing can adjust the difference according to the crop and get gas device height, the accurate farmland gaseous emission volume that detects different parenting periods. A gas device is got to farmland gaseous emission volume of measurationing, includes the base, increases case and gas production case, gas production roof end seals, and the bottom is uncovered and be stained with the sealing strip, and the first sealed buckle of using is established to four corners, and gas production roof portion and lateral part are equipped with the electric fan, and gas production roof portion is equipped with the thermometer, and gas production case lateral part is equipped with the thief hatch of connecting the sample thief, increasing case two ends opening, top and being stained with the sealing strip, the sealed buckles of using of the supporting second of gas tank buckle are established and get to four corners, base and the uncovered department of gas production case and to increase bottom of the case portion corresponding, the base is equipped with all around and is used for draining or the cell body of seal.

Zhang Zheng

Papers

Crop acquisition of phosphorus, iron and zinc from soil in cereal/legume intercropping systems: a critical review

Corn and peanut intercropped planting mode for grain yield stabilizing and oil production increase

Fresh corn and fresh peanut intercropping planting mode for medium-and-low-yield field in suburban area

Photo-thermal controllable multilayer liftable cultivation rack for wheat-maize seedling cultivation

Gas device is got to farmland gaseous emission volume of measurationing