Symbiotic interactions are very extended in nature and their multiple co-occurrence among plants, fungi and bacteria is highly likely within a community. Thus, a single plant can harbour different strains, species or types of symbionts. Furthermore, at the neighbourhood level, the co-occurrence of...

Evidence of the existence of a wide range of secondary compounds and proteins in plants with pharmacological activity or with the potential to cause adverse effects in other living organisms is now firmly embedded in the scientific literature. The term 'phytotoxins' is conventionally used to...

Heavy metals include the transition-metal elements essential to plant nutrition: iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni) and molybdenum (Mo), cobalt (Co) (which is required for nitrogen fixation in legumes); and the non-essential elements chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), mercury...

This book is a contribution to the debate and knowledge for the rebalancing of farming and food using legumes. The main aim is to help people who are involved in developing cropping systems: the decision makers of today and today's students who are the decision makers of tomorrow. It is aimed at...

Grain legumes currently cover less than 2% of European arable area, and estimates of forage legume coverage are little greater. Imported legume protein, however, is an important livestock feed additive. This chapter introduces the varied roles of legumes in cropping systems and in food and feed...

The loss of nutrients from agricultural systems is recognized as a major environmental problem, contributing to air pollution and nutrient enrichment in rivers and oceans. The use of legumes within agriculture provides an opportunity to reduce some of these losses in ways which maintain or enhance...

Legume cultivation in Europe has declined in recent decades due to decreased farm-level economic competitiveness compared with cereal and oil crop production. The increase in soybean prices in recent years and the public benefits expected from diversified production systems are reasons to...

The cultivation of legumes is low in Europe. Public policy incentives and/or regulations have a role to play in changing this. This chapter examines six such policies. The CAPRI (Common Agricultural Policy Regional Impact) model, a partial equilibrium model for the agricultural sector, is used to...

This chapter discusses the future of legumes (including grain and feed legumes) in cropping systems, which depends on a combination of six developments. The first is that the technical performance of legume crops needs to improve compared with competing crops. In practical terms, this means that...

This chapter presents the lists and criteria of approved feed ingredients, feedstuffs, nutrient elements, feed additive, and processing of feeds for organic poultry diets.