Introducing legumes into European cropping systems: farm-level economic effects.

Abstract

Legume cultivation in Europe has declined in recent decades due to decreased farm-level economic competitiveness compared with cereal and oil crop production. The increase in soybean prices in recent years and the public benefits expected from diversified production systems are reasons to reconsider legumes in Europe. Farm-level economic assessments, based on gross margin analysis of individual crops, often underestimate the contribution that legumes make to the farm business. We addressed this deficit using assessments made at the crop rotation level. We explored the possibilities resulting from: (i) the consideration of the management and yield of subsequent crops; (ii) systematic cropping system design; and (iii) changed price relations for legume feed grain. We identified several situations where legume-supported crop rotations are competitive and can create economic and environmental win-win situations to support a sustainable intensification of European cropping systems.

A High Throughput Ambient Mass Spectrometric Approach to Species Identification and Classification from Chemical Fingerprint Signatures

“…They are a well-known source of belladonna alkaloids including scopolamine and atropine, whose hallucinogenic and narcotic properties have been exploited in traditional religious rituals, herbal and mainstream medicine, and more recently in recreational drug abuse using its seeds 38 . It is often difficult to distinguish Datura species due to similarities in the appearance of both their seeds and their aerial parts, and because their morphological features can vary depending on where the plants are grown 39 . Datura plants also often bear resemblance to those in the Brugmansia genus, and this has led to the misidentification of some genus Brugmansia plants as belonging to the Datura genus and vice versa, as well as misidentification of species within the Datura genus 39 .…”

“…It is often difficult to distinguish Datura species due to similarities in the appearance of both their seeds and their aerial parts, and because their morphological features can vary depending on where the plants are grown 39 . Datura plants also often bear resemblance to those in the Brugmansia genus, and this has led to the misidentification of some genus Brugmansia plants as belonging to the Datura genus and vice versa, as well as misidentification of species within the Datura genus 39 . An additional challenge is that the morphological features that allow the plants to be distinguished, most notably the flowers and fruits, take months to years to appear, making species differentiation a long-term project.…”

Greening and legume-supported crop rotations: An impacts assessment on Italian arable farms

“…durum wheat/pasta; maize/animal production; processed tomato/tomato sauce). The production and the consumption of legumes in Europe has been subject of public debate in over the last decade and legume cultivation in Europe has declined in recent decades due to decreased farm-level economic competitiveness compared with cereal and oil crop production (Preissel et al, 2017). At the current level of technology, legume-supported crop rotations could sustain natural resources and improving environmental quality as the legumes crops demand less inputs than many crops and show a high level of resource use efficiency and support biodiversity (Zander et al, 2016).…”

“…This latter type calibrates mathematical programming models to observed behaviour during a reference period using the information provided by the dual variables of the calibration constraints (Howitt, 1995;Arfini and Paris, 1995;Paris and Howitt, 1998;de Frahan et al, 2016). Many analyses of the impact of farm policy reforms have been conducted using mathematical programming models in order to identify the possible solutions of crop-mix and to carry out sustainability analysis (Balezentis et al, 2020), also in the context of introducing legumes into cropping systems (Preissel et al, 2017).…”

Grain Legume Production and Use in European Agricultural Systems

“…On farms that are mixed, grain legumes can be used as home-produced high-protein feed without transport costs. Often, using home-produced grain legumes is economically viable as the value of the feed exceeds the market price (Preissel et al, 2017). Nevertheless, a mass return to mixed farming systems is unlikely for many reasons, including infrastructure costs associated with livestock housing, fences and watering points, and the knowledge needs of farmers.…”