Legume Research

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Review Article

Legumes in Cropping System for Soil Ecosystem Improvement: A Review

Neetu Sharma1,*, Rakesh Kumar1, A.P. Singh1, Rohit Sharma1, Peeyush Sharma2, Joy Samuel MeCarty1, Faraaz Farooq1
1Department of Agronomy, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Jammu-180 009, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
2Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Jammu-180 009, Jammu and Kashmir, India.

  • Submitted04-01-2024|

  • Accepted02-04-2024|

  • First Online 04-06-2024|

  • doi 10.18805/LR-5289

ABSTRACT

Legumes are versatile crops with great potential to produce protein-rich grains, naturally fix nitrogen, and enhance beneficial microbes in the soil. In the current context of climate change and global warming, incorporating legumes into crop rotation can help mitigate the negative effects of climate change and improve soil health. Researchers at the Division of Agronomy, FoA, SKUAST-J conducted a systematic and integrative review of published studies on the effects of legumes in cropping systems for soil ecology improvement. The review included research work from different parts of the world, particularly India. The literature search was conducted between August 2023 and November 2023 and around 150 review and research papers were screened from various databases such as ARCC journals, Google Scholar, Research Gate and Scopus. Out of these, 120 papers were used to write this comprehensive review article. The article provides a detailed documentation of the significant impact of legumes in cropping systems on soil ecology improvement. It emphasizes the potential effectiveness of legumes as a strategy for maintaining soil health.

INTRODUCTION

Agriculture is the backbone of developing nations with a prime focus on optimum productivity of crops and efficient use of natural resources in a suitable manner so that it can provide food and nutritional security in an efficient manner. After the inception of green-revolution, wheat and rice dominated the cropping systems due to promotional activities and institutional support (Maitra, 2020). As the high yielding fertilizer and resource responsive cultivars were released, agriculture shifted from “field to mouth” to “field to market”. Due to productive as well as marketing advantages along with specialization of crop husbandry, farmers kept on cultivating rice and wheat years after years. This practice of sole cropping led to nutrient mining, weed and pest infestation, declining soil fertility and factor productivity etc. along with yield stagnation (Lal, 2016). Rapid increase in these anthropogenic disturbances always seeking to exploit the natural resources have questioned the agricultural sustainability (Verma et al., 2015a). Consequently, legumes increase soil fertility through the action of microorganisms, which are imperative to affect the soil properties, including soil biological, chemical, and physical properties (Stagnari et al., 2017; Nanganoa et al., 2019; Vasconcelos et al., 2020). Therefore, it is of prime importance to look into the overall fertility and productivity of the soil as well as agro-ecosystem.
 
Different perspectives on legumes in cropping systems
 
It is projected that the global population will reach 8.6 billion by 2030 and 9.6 billion by 2050, which will exert significant pressure on the agricultural sector to ensure food security, mitigate the impacts of climate change and enhance soil health (Yadav et al., 2019; Lal, 2015). The incorporation of legumes into cropping systems plays a vital role in sustaining agricultural production. Legumes, such as pulses possess such important characteristics (Fig 1) that not only provide nutritious food for both humans and animals but also contribute to improving soil fertility (Tharanathan and Mahadevamma, 2021; Nees et al., 2020).
 

Fig 1: Important characteristics of legume crops.


       
The nutritional value of pulses, often referred to as the “poor man’s meat” is highly regarded in the Indian diet. However, despite having a significant vegetarian population, India’s focus on cereals has resulted in malnutrition issues. To address these deficiencies, it is crucial to increase the cultivation area and productivity of pulses (Lewis et al., 2015). Legumes, such as pulses, are abundant in carbohydrates, protein, fats, calcium, iron, riboflavin, thiamine and dietary fibres. They play a significant role in meeting global dietary protein requirements. Moreover, legumes not only provide essential nutrition but also contribute to the enhancement of subsequent crop productivity, making them indispensable for sustainable cropping systems (Dhakal et al., 2016).
       
Legumes besides being dietary staples, also benefit animal health, improve soil fertility through nitrogen fixation and phosphorus solubilization and can serve as biofuels (Meena et al., 2015a; Jensen et al., 2022). They also contribute to lowering both biological and environmental stresses and advancements like organic techniques and reduced tillage have increased their production (Meena et al., 2016). These practices, coupled with effective crop rotation, enhance agricultural and environmental sustainability. Studies show that incorporating legumes can boost cereal yields by 15-25% (Kirkegaard et al., 2018). Legume inclusion reduces reliance on agrochemicals, supporting sustainable production, particularly in organic farming systems (Verma et al., 2015a and b). Moreover, it significantly enhances essential soil nutrients compared to monoculture (Stagnari et al., 2017).
 
Legumes and biological nitrogen fixation (BNF)
 
Nitrogen is a primary essential nutrient for crop production and is the vital factor for crops aftersolar radiation and water. Legumes have the capability to fix the atmospheric nitrogen through legume-rhizobia symbiotic association. This biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) not only help the legume to fulfil its nitrogen need but also enrich the soil nitrogen status to improve the succeeding crop yield (Carranca, 2019). Plants get nitrogen from soil either through et al., decomposition of legume residue on their incorporation or from atmospheric nitrogen fixation through leguminous plants (Yong et al., 2015 and Verma et al., 2015b). Those leguminous plants which fix and add atmospheric nitrogen to soil called “N-donor” plants and those which receives this soil nitrogen called “N-receiving” plants (Moyer-Henry et al., 2016). This phenomenon of transfer of nitrogen from N-donor to N-receiver varies from 10-85% of the N demand of N receiving plants (Paynel et al., 2018) and by adoption of suitable legume in cropping system the nitrogen demand of crops can be fulfilled through BNF (Rahman et al., 2014). The extent of this biological nitrogen fixation varies from zero to several hundred-kilogram nitrogen per hectare (Soumare et al., 2020).
 
Agro techniques for legumes in cropping system
 
Various agro-techniques for legumes in cropping system mentioned in the Fig 2.
 

Fig 2: Legumes in Cropping Systems.


 
Sequential cropping
 
Crop rotation is considered to be incomplete if legumes are not included in a cropping system. The amount of nitrogen addition to soil through legume inclusion depends on the legume crop taken for the system (Squire et al., 2019). Legumes in cropping system not only improves biomass production but also enhance soil carbon and nitrogen status (Lal, 2021). The increased carbon and nitrogen status in soil not only makes soil microbes active but also benefits the succeeding crops (Akinnifesi et al., 2017; Lithourgidis et al., 2021). Significant yield level in succeeding maize crop even without chemical source of fertilization has been reported when cultivated after legume crops (Lopez and Mundt, 2020).
 
Intercropping
 
Intercropping is an ancient agricultural practice of mixed cropping that involves planting two or more crop species together in the same space and at the same time. The most common combination for this practice is legumes/cereals. The main aim is to enhancing the resource efficiency (Inal et al., 2017) and stabilizes the agroecosystem (Maitra and Ray, 2019; Maitra et al., 2021). Legumes helps in maintaining soil fertility (Hauggaard-Nielsen et al., 2019), suppresses weeds population in the crop field (Liang et al., 2020) etc. Thus, it is a low-input agro-technique (Ashoka et al., 2017) to enrich soil nitrogen status and to limit chemical nitrogen fertilization (Maitra et al., 2021).
       
The legumes commonly used as intercrops improving the yield of the main crop as well as the system (Sarkar et al., 2020 and Ghaley et al., 2015). Non-legume crop in association with the legume crop benefited from the biological nitrogen fixation (Garg 2017) or through nitrogen transfer throughroot exudates, leaf leachates  etc. (Addo-Quaye et al., 2021). Biologically fixed nitrogen by legumes directly available to non-legume crop grown together, known as direct N availability (Adeniyan et al., 2017 and Dahmardeh et al., 2020) or added to the crop field to supplement the succeeding crop called residual N availability. Crops grown along with legume crops can provide better yield. Legume in intercropping can restore the soil nitrogen status by BNF (Fujita et al., 2019 and Meena et al., 2017a, Maitra et al., 2021).
 
Crop rotation
 
Crop rotation is also an intensive strategy with recurrent succession of crops to enhance the output of the system in terms of crop productivity through inclusion of suitable crops (Boudreau and Mundt, 2016; Fininsa 2016). Inclusion of legume in the system is mostly encouraged due to their advantages viz. BNF, nutrient recycling, increase soil carbon and nitrogen stock etc (Keeler et al., 2019). Legume based crop rotation not only enhance soil quality and system productivity but also breaks weedand pathogen cycle, reduce agrochemical inputs, increase biodiversity of the agricultural ecosystem. Leguminous crops produce higher biomass and improve soil organic carbon, that further increase the soil microbial population and maintain soil health (Hauggaard-Nielsen et al., 2019). The inclusion of legumes in cropping system produces more biomass using limited resource base, improves soil carbon and nitrogen stock and can be adopted suitably in any cropping system and can be used in sustainable land development programs (Lithourgidis et al., 2021). As the legumes are involved in BNF and supply it to both current season as well as succeeding crops in the cropping system, these can also be considered for N-economy (Mahmud et al., 2020; Praharaj and Maitra, 2020). The quantity of nitrogen fixed and supplied to current and succeeding crops depends mainly on the legume species, cross inoculation group associated, soil type, climate, duration of the crops, etc (Chen et al., 2019; Spehn et al., 2022).
 
Green and brown manuring
 
Legume are preferred for green manuring as they fix atmospheric nitrogen in soil, produce more biomass within short time period, rich in nutrients and low in C:N ratio (Maitra et al., 2018). Green manuring can partially or completely fulfil the N need of succeeding crop (Tiwari et al., 2014 and Meena et al., 2015b). Amelioration of degraded soils can easily be done by addition of green foliage into the soil (Maitra et al., 2018) and thus provides a healthy agro-ecosystem for crops (Blackshaw et al., 2019; Larkin and Griffin, 2017; Tillman et al., 2014; Agbenin, 2021).
 
Cover crop
 
Legumes are close growing crops and hence serves as cover crop. Also, the de nse foliage ofmost legumes reduces the erosive action of rainfall to a large extent. Legumes release many root exudates such as organic acids to the soil which acts as a binding agent and reduces soil erodibility by improving aggregate stability (Sanchez-Navarro et al., 2019). Legumes act as both fertility restorer and a measure of erosion control in such areas. Legumes can also be grown in alternate strips along with some erosion susceptible crops to keep the soil loss below acceptable threshold. The benefits of using legume as cover crop is due to the fact that it ensures food and nutritional security while protecting the soil from erosive agents and improving the soil health (Blanchart et al., 2016; Doane et al., 2019).
 
Synergy between legumes and soil health improvement
 
Modern, intensive agriculture system is mainly agrochemical dependent directing towards degradation of soil health. Due to intensive cultivation and fault soil management practices, severe constraints like increase in soil compaction and erosion, reduction in soil productive potential and reduction in soil microbial activity have been well recognized (Unger and Kaspar, 2018) . It was reported that legume can accumulate about 2.6 kg N ha-1 day-1 and their incorporation can be equivalent to 50-100 kg N ha-1 application of chemicalnitrogenous fertilizers (Ladha et al., 2018). However, Dhaincha at 45-60 DAS can accumulate 5.5 kg N ha-1 day-1 and can fix about 300 kg N ha-1 (Ladhaet_al2018). Legume crops play a vital role in the nitrogen cycle fixing atmospheric nitrogen and can supply the available nitrogen to current season crop as well as succeeding crops. Biological nitrogen fixationenhance 9.7-20.5% residual nitrogen content in rice field (Yu et al., 2014). Almost half of the total above ground biomass nitrogen partitioned into below ground biomass (Carranca et al., 2015). Incorporation of legume residue adds about 50-60 kg ha-1 of N to the soil that can be used by the succeeding crop and the loss of N in this case is significantly lower than chemical fertilizer application (Singh, 2020; Dhakal et al., 2016). Soil health keeps on decreasing by adopting continuous cereal based cropping system (Kumar et al., 2016). To overcome this problem, inclusion of suitable legume in the cropping system can be a sustainable option to maintain the soil fertility as well as productivity (Dhaliwal et al., 2021; Singh et al., 2021). Legume crops through the process of biological N fixation can save 150-200 kg N ha-1 year-1 (Peyraud et al., 2009) and can fulfil 90% of their own nitrogen requirement on proper rhizobium inoculation (Yadav et al., 2019). Over the decomposition of these legume residues on incorporation, some N recycled in soil (Meena et al., 2015b) and this N cycling regulated by quality of the residue, soil microbial activity and soil environment, pH, aeration etc. (Srinivasarao et al., 2022). The residues of legumes can improve soil physical, chemical and biological health (Grandy et al., 2022 and Mousavi et al., 2019). It has also been reported that, taking crops having different rooting depths and minimal soil disturbance, legumes optimize micro and macro- pores in soil that increases infiltration of water to deeper root zone depth (Kumar and Goh, 2016). Legume crops along with biological nitrogen fixation can add high quality soil organic matter and nutrient cycling (Dhakal et al., 2016).
 
Effect of legume on soil physical, chemical and biological properties
 
Incorporating legumes into cropping systems brings numerous benefits to soil health, enhancing its physical, chemical and biological properties (Fig 3).
 

Fig 3: Effect of legume on soil physical, chemical and biological properties.


 
Improvement in soil physical properties
 
Physical properties of soil are fairly constant towards crop husbandry practices, but important criteria associated with aeration, erosion, runoff, infiltration rate, nutrient and moisture holding capacity of soil (Dexter, 2014). Therefore, proper soil physical condition is essential for optimum tillage, root growth, ground water recharge, prolonged soil moisture availability and deprived soil physical condition may lead to difficulty in farm activities (Schoenholtz et al., 2020, Dexter 2014, Meena et al., 2015a). Inclusion of legumes in soil acts as soil conditioner and improves soil physical properties significantly (Srinivasarao et al., 2022). Leguminous crops used as cover crops and their incorporation in soil significantly influence soil physical properties and also improves soil microbial population, increasing soil organic matter (Lal 2015). Furthermore, legume residue inclusion improves soil water stable aggregates and improves soil physical condition preventing soil erosion (Lithourgidis et al., 2021 and Mousavi et al., 2019). Legume crops also improves water status and soil infiltration by increasing soil aggregate stability (Mousavi et al., 2019; Schädler et al., 2021).

Improvement in soil chemical properties
 
Soil chemical properties and nutrient concentration play a pivotal role in nutrient dynamics, influencing crop yield (Meena et al., 2015a). The inclusion of legume crops significantly impacts soil chemical properties by adding organic matter and through biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), which sustains soil fertility and optimizes overall productivity (Kelly et al., 2019). Legumes are known to positively affect available nutrients, soil pH and soil organic carbon stock. Their presence alters soil pH by releasing organic acids, potentially enhancing phosphorus availability (Meena et al., 2017b) and stimulating soil microbial activity (Lopez and Mundt, 2022), crucially influencing nutrient dynamics. Legume incorporation not only enriches soil nitrogen content but also contributes substantial essential nutrients, organic matter and aids in sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide (Turnbull and Bowman, 2020; Sharma and Behera, 2019; Lal, 2015). The decomposition rate of legume biomass and subsequent nutrient release depend on various factors like nutrient content, soil type, climate, plant density and management practices (Adeboye et al., 2015). Factors such as pH, aeration, moisture and temperature also influence biomass decomposition rate and nutrient release (Liang et al., 2020). Incorporating legume plants at an early age facilitates faster biomass decomposition (Melero et al., 2017). The excessive use of agrochemicals leads to pesticide contamination, causing soil and water pollution and negatively impacting soil biodiversity (Prell and Poole, 2016; Khan et al., 2019; Jin et al., 2015). Implementing best management practices in agriculture aids in recovering from agrochemical contamination and promotes the development of holistic agroecosystems (Deakin and Broughton, 2019; Lal, 2021). Legume inclusion in soil acts as a barrier, preventing the carryover of pesticides into the soil and water bodies, thereby minimizing erosion and run off (Fester et al., 2014). Certain gram-negative bacteria species exhibit symbiotic nitrogen fixation capabilities with legumes via their roots, enabling atmospheric nitrogen fixation. Hydrogen, a byproduct of this process, possesses bioactive properties that enhance plant abiotic stress tolerance (Cui et al., 2013). Rhizobia, involved in symbiotic nitrogen fixation, directly eliminate soil pollutants (Jin et al., 2015), indirectly enhancing other degrading microbes and enzymes, which contribute to metal bioremediation (Fester et al., 2014).
 
Improvement in soil biological properties
 
Incorporating legumes into cropping systems significantly improves soil biological properties by enhancing nitrogen fixation and phosphorous availability, thereby boosting soil fertility and microbial activity (Fig 4). Nitrogen is limiting macro-nutrient in most of the agricultural soil and the requirement of nitrogen in plant is also higher than other mineral nutrients (Brookes, 2015 and Suman et al., 2016). Rhizobia in association with legume synthesize nitrogenase enzyme which help in atmospheric nitrogen fixation. Biological nitrogen fixation assimilates as protein and glycoproteins in plant biomass (Klauer and Francesch, 2017 and Lansing and Franceschi, 2020). Phosphorous is one of the essential mineral elements for plant growth, but its availability in soil is limited by soil reaction and complexation with Fe, Al, Ca and Mg (Sinclair and Vadez, 2022 and Meena et al., 2017a). Legume inclusion in cropping system help in releasing several acids in the form of root exudates (Shen et al., 2022 and Nuruzzaman et al., 2016) and enhancing phosphatase enzyme activity (Gilbert et al., 2016). Hydrogen gas is released as byproduct during biological nitrogen fixation which encourage microbial activity, microbial carbon and microbial nitrogen in root zone. This microbial carbon and microbial nitrogen comprise of 1-7% of total soil carbon and nearly 5% of total soil nitrogen respectively (Anderson and Domsch, 2019, Insam et al., 2019) which contributes most to the labile carbon and nitrogen fraction in soil (Insam et al., 2019). Inclusion of legumes in cropping system enhances the soil microbial activity (Alvey et al., 2016) and small change in the concentration of nitrogen, cellulose, lignin content or C:N ratio of residue trigger the divergence of soil microbial status (Meena et al., 2014, Schelud’ko et al., 2019) and tripartite symbiotic association of mycorrhiza-legume-rhizobium which further enhance the plant nutrition (Hayman, 2016 and Scheublin et al., 2014). Soil phosphorous has limited mobility and legume generally require more phosphorous for their growth and especially for the nodule formation. (Zahran, 2019).
 

Fig 4: Effect of legume on Soil Biological Properties.

CONCLUSION

From the above points it is revealed that the complex mechanisms and optimizing management practices involving legumes in cropping systems is crucial for sustainable agriculture. Future research should focus on identifying suitable legume species, exploring diverse cropping systems and developing best practices to maximize the benefits mentioned above while mitigating potential challenges.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

All authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.

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