Assessing the sustainability of legumes production in South Europe

Abstract

One of the main challenges of the European Union’s (EU) agricultural policy is to decrease dependency on imported high-protein materials for livestock feed. Until now the trade deficit for Europe is substantially high, reaching 70%. The vast majority of this is covered by imports of soybeans, mainly from American countries and China. The formulation of sustainable, under economic and environmental means, production protocols of legumes could be a promising strategic approach. Based on this, a series of alternative leguminous crops is being examined to substitute soybeans and soy meal, taking into consideration the existing constraints in South European countries, like water scarcity. The species used for this research are the Pisum sativum subsp. arvense L. and the Lupinus albus. The chapter reveals the state and dynamics of all high-protein crops in the countries of the area. In addition, it sheds light on the potential of the four crops in improving the competitiveness of the agricultural sector by examining their productivity in terms of physical output and value. Finally, the effect of specialization on the sustainability of the sector is being assessed based on correlation analyses. The results signify that the soybeans monoculture comes up with significant output losses of high-protein crops as the specialization to soybeans production leads to lower levels of land productivity, while it fails to make countries operate more efficiently in both environmental and economic terms. © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.