Increasing productivity and sustainability of European plant protein production by closing the grain legume yield gap Project leader Ina Alsiņa Team of project Alise Klūga Laila Dubova Duration 2019 - 2022 Research focus 4. Development and adaptation of technologies for obtaining high-value agricultural and forest products, as well as in veterinary medicine Source of funding Ministry of Agriculture projects Project partners University of Helsinki, Humboldt University of Berlin, Faculty of Life Sciences, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Department of Genetics, Plant Breeding and Seed Production, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), Crop & Soil Systems Research Group, INRA, Environment and Agronomy, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Environmental Geography Group, Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Lleida, Crop and Forest Sciences, RAGT SEMENCES, RAGT2n, Research and Development Description of project The aim of research is to employ a systems approach integrating biophysical and socio-economic factors, investigating their interactions to maximize the potential productivity and quality of two crops. This will be achieved through an innovative combination of methodological approaches including modelling, field experiments, large-scale farmer surveys, and comprehensive data analysis. The tasks of project: Estimate via modelling the yield potential of the two grain legumes and the environmental effects under different climatic, cultivar, and management assumptions, in a variety of EU sites and upscaled to the EU level.Analyse the potential of cultivars, via characterization of faba and soya bean germplasm across Europe and experiments on soya bean cultivar adaptability in central European and dry Mediterranean conditions.Develop optimal management practices, based on literature, unpublished long-term experiments, and new on-station and on-farm field experiments using sensors and modern Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for non-destructive sampling and high spatio-temporal resolution.Analyse the components and underlying factors of the legume yield gap, such as climate, cultivars, management, and knowledge, in order to propose appropriate interventions to close the gaps.Conduct a large-scale farmer survey in eight European countries to explore, for the first time, the influence of farmers’ knowledge on yield gaps.Evaluate the potential and trade-offs of legume production at the field and EU scales, considering socio-economic and environmental aspects.Maximize the outreach and valorization of project outputs via robust management of all project data and effective communication and dissemination. Results The LegumeGap project will contribute in this direction by identifying the potential contribution of new cultivars, optimal management practices, and farmers’ knowledge in closing the yield and protein gaps, reducing the observed yield variability and EU-level protein shortfall, and optimizing the environmental performance of legume production in Europe. We will focus on two key representative legumes: faba bean and soya bean, due to their growing popularity, broad adaptability and high protein concentration in the seeds.