Harnessing Benefits of Legumes for Tropical Farming Systems
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Innovative Cropping Systems".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 911
Special Issue Editors
Interests: sesame; nigella; cumin; fennel; water use efficiency; drought tolerance; bioactive compounds; herbs; spices; aromatic plants
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Legumes belonging to the Leguminosae family comprise about 800 genera and over 23,000 species. They are the third largest angiosperm family, and are known for diverse morphological, physiological, and ecological adaptations. Legumes are economically important food crops, providing nutritious sources of protein and micronutrients that benefit human health and livelihoods. Legumes are also uniquely important as feed, fodder, and green manure underpinning crop and livestock farming systems. The global legumes market was valued at USD 11.5 billion in 2022 and projected to grow to USD 12.10 billion in 2024 to be USD 18.30 billion by 2032.
Legumes are versatile crops, not only for producing protein-rich grains and feed but also for their biological N fixation, solubilizing phosphate using organic acids in root exudates, and their capacity for tolerating various biotic and abiotic stress tolerances underpinning their high productivity in temperate farming systems. The challenge is to translate similar potentials of legumes for the tropics to harness the legume opportunities in tropical farming systems.
The world faces an array of global challenges for agriculture, including a costly labor force, climate change, accessible energy, soil and water constraints, a fast shift in food trends, market regulations, emerging disease and pest challenges, and the environmental footprint of agriculture. Linking the role of tropical legumes to address these widespread agricultural challenges in the tropics is the purpose of this Special Issue.
This Special Issue on “Harnessing Benefits of Legumes for Tropical Farming Systems” will focus on the scientific and technical advances in knowledge, methods, and tools that contribute towards expanding the scope of legumes in the wider tropical landscape underpinning the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of tropical farming systems through the tropical legume.
Suggested innovation should significantly add to the widespread adoption of appropriate tropical legume technologies by the grain industry demonstrate enhanced benefit of legume crops, for example in crop rotation, in mixed crop-cattle farming as a dual or grain–graze crop improving the productivity of the farming system, or in pastoral systems for sustainable pasture production.
The opportunities can extend beyond crop and livestock use, as many legumes are also used for their wood, tannins, oils, and resins, in the manufacture of varnishes, paints, dyes, and medicines, as spices, as herbals, in bioengineering, in pest control, in the horticultural trade, and in many more market-value products.
Research or review articles on the following topics are welcome for this Special Issue:
- New or minor legume crops with greater adaptation for tropical environments;
- Dual-purpose tropical legumes, e.g., grain and graze legumes for mixed farming systems;
- Enhanced biological nitrogen fixation in tropical legumes;
- New products or processing methods for tropical legumes;
- Applications of mechanization and use of artificial intelligence in tropical legumes.
Biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in tropical legumes.
Dr. Surya P. Bhattarai
Dr. Dante L. Adorada
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- tropical agriculture
- grain and graze
- dual purpose crops
- sustainable soil
- pulses
- mixed farming
- farming system
- soil fertility
- germplasm enhancement
- high-value crops
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