Role of Legume Crops in Sustainable Agriculture

Legumes are essential for healthy, sustainable diets and improving animal feed quality. They provide hard-to-find amino acids like lysine, making them valuable in plant-based nutrition. As high-protein, nutrient-dense foods, legumes can lower heart disease and stroke risk and serve as meat alternatives. Replacing meat and dairy with legumes reduces agricultural land pressure and lowers greenhouse gas emissions from livestock management. Agronomic studies have demonstrated that legumes enhance soil organic matter and bolster the resilience of crop rotations (Ebert, 2014; Wu et al., 2017; Considine et al., 2017), while contributing to increased crop yields and/or profitability (Luce et al., 2015; Preissel et al., 2015; Reckling et al., 2016). Environmental research indicates that legumes' nitrogen-fixing capabilities reduce greenhouse gas emissions by lowering the need for mineral fertilisers and decreasing water pollution and runoff (Lampkin et al., 2015; Lotjonen and Ollikainen, 2017).