Original title: Multiple benefits of legumes for agriculture sustainability: an overview
Legumes include crops such as beans and peas, which can provide food and feed. They take nitrogen from the air and add it to the soil, which can reduce the need for nitrogen fertilizer. Their roots and plant remains also add organic matter and help soil hold water and move nutrients. The overview describes ways these crops may support farming with fewer outside inputs and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Imagine making dinner with a pantry that keeps running low. You can buy more ingredients each time, or grow beans that also help replenish the soil where other food grows. In this paper, the beans stand for legumes: they provide food while adding nitrogen and organic matter to the soil, potentially reducing the need for outside supplies.
Farmers face pressure to produce food while cutting emissions and relying less on outside inputs. Legumes can help on several fronts: they provide food and animal feed, add nitrogen and organic matter to soil, and can fit into diverse or low-input farming systems.
The abstract describes potential benefits and reports several estimates, but it does not explain how those estimates were measured or how widely they apply across legume types, locations, or farming conditions. It does not establish that legumes will deliver the same benefits in every system.
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Multiple benefits of legumes for agriculture sustainability: an overview — Fabio Stagnari, Albino Maggio, Angelica Galieni et al. — Chemical and Biological Technologies in Agriculture — doi:10.1186/s40538-016-0085-1
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.