Legumes to reduce ecological footprints for climate-smart cropping systems

The ever-increasing population has intensified farming practices resulting in excessive use of farm inputs including fossil fuels and agrochemicals. Agriculture has proven to be one of the significant contributors, contributing 13.5% to the global greenhouse gases (GHGs) pool while still being a potent climate change mitigating option. Sustainable crop production keeping into account the pace of climate change will be a mammoth task to execute in the years to come. Apart from being a major source of dietary protein for humans and feed for animals, legumes play a major role in fixing atmospheric nitrogen (N), enhancing soil water retention and nutrient cycling. Legumes offer a wide array of functions including reducing dependence on N2 fertilizer, their strong influence soil organic carbon content and lowering agricultural born greenhouse gas emissions reduce ecological foot print of non-legume based cropping systems. They play pivotal roles in the food system, production system and cropping system levels. Therefore, it might be worthwhile to introduce legumes into crop rotations for the development of agroecosystem diversity, provide environmental and socio-economic benefits.