LegumeGap

Project title: Increasing productivity and sustainability of European plant protein production by closing the grain legume yield gap (LegumeGap)

Duration: 1.04.2019 – 31.12.2022

Project Budget: 1 800 000 EUR

Budget for UPWr (role): 771 690 PLN (Partner)

Project Coordinator: dr hab. inż. Sylwia Lewandowska, profesor uczelni

The potential of legumes to simultaneously contribute to several production, environmental, and nutritional objectives, is well known byscience and policy. Legumes contribute to increased European protein self-sufficiency, diversification of cropping systems and farmbusinesses, reduction in fertilizer and pesticide use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, enhancement of sustainable diets, and preventionof land degradation and biodiversity loss.

Despite these widely recognized benefits, grain legume production in Europe is still low, partly dueto inadequateinvestment in breeding, sub-optimal management practices, andgaps in farmers’ knowledge. To ensure food and nutritionalsecurity under climate change and reduce pressures on natural resources, the potential of legumes must be fully utilized.

The LegumeGap project will contribute in this direction by identifying the potential contribution of new cultivars, optimal managementpractices, and farmers’ knowledge in closing the yield andprotein gaps, reducing the observed yield variability and EU-level protein shortfall,and optimizing the environmental performance of legume production in Europe.

We will focus on two key representative legumes: faba beanand soya bean, due to their growing popularity, broad adaptability and high protein concentration in the seeds. A systems approach will be employed, where biophysical and socio-economic limitations, opportunities, and their interaction are taken intoaccount.

The innovative combination of different methodological approaches, including modelling, field experiments, a large scale farmersurvey, and data analysis, will allow us to deliver more than their individual parts and to identify and recommend ways by which thepotential of these two crops can be maximised.