Abstract
Abstract Crop production in Europe is intensive, highly specialized and responsible for some negative environmental impacts, raising questions about the sustainability of agricultural systems. The (re)integration of grain legumes into European agricultural systems could contribute to the transition to more sustainable food production. While the general benefits from legume cultivation are widely known, there is little evidence on how to re-design specific cropping systems with legumes to make this option more attractive to farmers. The objectives of this study were to describe the constraints and opportunities of grain legume production perceived by farmers, explain the agronomic impacts of current grain legume cropping, explore technical options to improve grain legume agronomy, and to re-design current grain legume cropping systems in a participatory process with farmers. A co-design approach was implemented with farmers, advisors and scientists on 25 farms in northern Germany, that were part of two large demonstration networks of about 170 farms supporting grain legumes across Germany. We used the DEED research cycle (Describe, Explain, Explore and Design) as a conceptual framework combining on-farm research, crop rotation modelling, and on-station experiments. From it, we identified nine agronomic practices that either were novel or confirmed known strategies under new conditions, to re-design grain legume cropping systems at the field and farm level. The practices included (i) inter-row hoeing, (ii) direct seeding into a cover-crop, (iii) species-specific inoculation, (iv) cover crops to reduce leaching, (v) reduced tillage, (vi) soybean for increased gross margins, (vii) cultivars for food and feed use, (viii) flexible irrigation, (ix) grain legumes with cover crop to enhance subsequent crop yields. We also demonstrate how to complement knowledge of farmers’ perceptions (Describe step) and formal knowledge from classical on-station experiments and modelling (Explain step) with on-farm research including the local views of farmers (Explore step) to identify tailored options for specific farm contexts rather than prescriptive solutions (Design step) to intensify legume production. This approach therefore contrasts with traditional methods that are often solely participatory and qualitative or model/experimental-based and quantitative. Hence, our results provide new insights in how to re-design cropping systems using a combination of participatory and quantitative approaches. While participatory approaches are common in developing countries, this study shows their potential in an industrialized context with large-scale farmers in Europe. These novel findings can be used as a starting point for further adaptations of cropping systems and contribute to making grain legume production economically and environmentally more sustainable.
Highlights
Intensification and specialization of farming in Europe is responsible for negative environmental impacts and has raised large concerns about the sustainability of agricultural systems (Scherer et al., 2018)
We used the DEED research cycle (Fig. 2) for the co-design of cropping systems with farmers, advisors and scientists in this study following four steps: Step 1, we Described current production constraints and opportunities with grain legumes by collecting farmers views through a structured survey and qualitative focus group discussions during regular field days; Step 2, we Explained the impacts of current grain legume rotations using crop rotation modelling and onfarm monitoring; Step 3, we Explored alternative practices through testing technical options at the field scale based on farmers’ constraints and opportunities in on-farm trials and on-station experiments; Step 4, we re-Designed grain legume cropping systems by identifying strategies evaluated as “successful” using workshops with farmers, advisors and scientists
High yield instability of grain legumes was mentioned in previous surveys (Von Richthofen et al, 2006; Zimmer et al, 2016b) and Cernay et al (2015) found lupin to be the most unstable crop in Western, Eastern and Northern Europe, followed by common bean, vetch, faba bean soybean and pea using average yield data neglecting scaling effects
Summary
Intensification and specialization of farming in Europe is responsible for negative environmental impacts and has raised large concerns about the sustainability of agricultural systems (Scherer et al., 2018). The (re)integration of grain legume crops into European agricultural systems could contribute to the transition to greater sustainability in agricultural production and reduce some of the negative impacts (Voisin et al, 2014). Production is constrained by a variety of pests, diseases and weeds, resulting in relatively low mean yields (Döring, 2015; Watson et al, 2017). While their temporal yield stability is lower than in winter crops, it is similar to that of other spring crops (Reckling et al, 2018b). Other drivers contributing to the small area of grain legumes are the specialization of farms on a few, profitable crops, unpredictable policy support, and lack of awareness of the positive rotational effects of legumes at the cropping system scale (Zander et al, 2016)
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