Sustainable Production of Legumes and Oil Crops

Dear Colleagues,

The world population is predicted to double by 2050, imposing an increasing demand for high-quality food that is accompanied by increasing concerns for the environment. Sustainable agriculture combines the most important principles and practices to meet these challenges. Sustainable crop production deals with integrated pest management, protecting biodiversity, ensuring food safety and food quality, improving nutrient quality, and fertilizing the soil with organic fertilizers. Sustainably produced crops are more beneficial to the environment and consumers in comparison to commercial crops. Based on this fact, sustainable legume and oil crop production is being increasingly demanded. A significant increase in the world demand for natural protein and fat represents a great opportunity to restore agro-environment biodiversity by increasing the cultivation of legume crops and oilseed crops in areas dominated by cereals. Legumes and oilseed crops, whose beneficial role in cropping systems is widely acknowledged, are needed now more than ever to increase the sustainability of crop production. Legumes are important food and feed crops, being key components of the diet, as well as staple crops, and exert their benefits through increased biological nitrogen fixation, thus reducing energy costs and improving soil physical conditions and biodiversity. Oilseed crops are very important for the market as a source of fat for food and fodder production. Oilseed cultivation positively affects soil conditions and enhances biodiversity in cereal monoculture systems.

Dr. Agnieszka Klimek-Kopyra
Dr. Reinhard W. Neugschwandtner
Guest Editors

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