Legume-based inter-cropping to achieve the crop, soil, and environmental health security

Abstract

In recent years, the increased pressure of food and nutritional insecurity, land degradation, climate change, continuous declining soil fertility, and low and stagnant crop productivity has derived the attention of many environmental, agricultural, and ecological researchers toward inter-cropping for sustaining soil, plant, and environmental health. Legumes are a key component for sustaining soil health and ecological security. Legume-based cropping systems not only ensure food and nutritional security, these are also beneficial in terms of monetary returns and sustaining ecosystem services. Including grain legumes in cropping systems helps to restore the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil. Inter-cropping is the agronomic practice of growing two or more crops simultaneously in the same field. Inter-cropping creates an ecologically strong agricultural system by reducing the use of external harmful chemical input and utilizing natural resources more efficiently, which produces healthy and good quality food. Moreover, legume inter-cropping may also help in meeting the sustainable development goals of the United Nations by enhancing agricultural production, the nutritional quality of the food, and soil health. The low productivity of cereals, vegetables, oilseeds, tuber/root crops, and other crops can be increased by including legumes in the production system as legume has the ability of nitrogen fixation (BNF), soil quality improvement, soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration, resource conservation, and adaptation in a wide range of environmental conditions. At the crop protection level, legume inter-cropping enhances biodiversity, which helps in breaking the continuous life cycle of harmful insect pests and diseases. Further, the higher canopy cover of legume inter-cropping also reduces the weed biomass because of their smothering effect. The production of cereals can be increased by 15%–25% by diminishing the attack of insectpests, diseases, and weeds. This chapter aims to highlight the vital role of legume inter-cropping in advancing food and feed quality by improving crop health and restoring soil physical, chemical, and biological health. Legume inter-cropping has multiple benefits, namely, increase SOC, improve soil fertility by adding nitrogen (N) through BNF, improve soil structure, conserve soil and water from erosion, and enhance water and nutrient use efficiencies. Thus, legume inter-cropping could be an advance agronomic strategy for restoring soil health and improving plant health with principles of sustainability while ensuring food and nutritional security of the burgeoning world population. In this corollary, introducing legume inter-cropping in the cropping systems is imperative to achieve the goal of agricultural sustainability and soil security in the diverse agroecosystems. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.