THE James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen is inviting Scottish farmers to take part in research on the cultivation of legumes and their potential benefits.
The European project, called legumES, is looking for three Scottish farmers to participate in trials that assess the environmental, economic, and social benefits of legume crops like peas, beans, and clover.
The Hutton Institute noted that while legumes are an important part of a healthy diet, the consumption of lentils, peas, and other legumes remains low in many parts of Europe.
The four-year project aims to demonstrate how these crops can reduce dependence on synthetic fertilisers, lower greenhouse gas emissions, improve soil health, and create more resilient farming systems.
The trials will use simple monitoring methods to gather data on these benefits.
Dr Alison Karley, leading the trials, and Dr Pete Iannetta, who is co-ordinating the project, explained that some data can be directly monitored using farm equipment. For more complex factors, like biodiversity or soil health, different techniques will be used to gather the necessary information.
For example, scientists “might use worm counts as an indicator of soil biodiversity, or disease incidence as an indicator of pathogen control, flower visitation by pollinators as an indicator of pollination success, or water infiltration through soil as an indicator of soil susceptibility to runoff and erosion”.
“It also examines how legume crops might mitigate the impacts that are already being experienced from climate change and biodiversity loss – including crop biodiversity loss – and their effects on nutritional security,” said Iannetta.
The research project needs three Scottish farmers and three farmers located in England.
Farmers who join the programme will need to set aside part of their field to grow the chosen legume crop.
The field could be as large as one hectare or smaller in a stand-alone plot or a strip within an existing crop.
“We have proposed a suite of ecosystem services that might interest farmers, but we are open to their own ideas of what should be monitored," said Iannetta and Karley.
“At the same time, we will ask farmers to provide basic information about their trial operations and agronomy. This is important as it will provide a first step in learning how we might place a value on ecosystem services from legumes so we can better account for them in farm planning and decision making as well as how they could be best valued as a benefit for wider society.”
The project also seeks to improve biodiversity, support sustainable food systems, and strengthen rural communities by offering alternative economic opportunities through legume-based farming.
Karley hopes that “working with farmers to run trials will provide much-needed evidence of these benefits and help identify options for promoting the growing and consumption of legume products”.
The project will aim to find solutions to help make agriculture more sustainable in Scotland and Europe.
Farmers who will take part in the project will receive funds upon completion and can send an email to legumES@hutton.ac.uk to register their interest.
