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Legume growing has many benefits. Indeed legumes provide plant proteins for animal feed and human food. Legumes fix atmospheric N and, in turn, provide cheap and green N fertilisers. Additionally, legumes are used as diversification crops in rotations based on oilseed rape and cereals. Despite those benefits, legume crops in Europe represent less than 4 % of arable lands, and European legume seeds are underused for animal and human nutrition. Nonetheless, European authorities are now fostering the development of legume crops for sustainable agriculture. Here, we analyse forage and grain legume-producing systems since 1950 in order to identify the actual constraints of legume development. We show that legumes can contribute to the agroecological transition for sustainable agriculture, food and energy and for sustainable agri-food systems. Then, we point out that high added-value niche markets are required for supporting legume production. The major research needs identified are (1) analysing the constraints of the current systems and identifying ways of moving towards systems that include more legumes, (2) identifying new and diversified uses for legumes in a sustainable food chain, (3) assessing and improving the ecosystem services provided by legumes at cropping system and territory scales and (4) promoting agroecology through and for legume crop management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grain legume production in Europe has recently come under scrutiny. Although legume crops are often promoted to provide environmental services, European farmers tend to turn to non-legume crops. It is assumed that high variability in legume yields explains this aversion, but so far this hypothesis has not been tested. Here, we estimate the variability of major grain legume and non-legume yields in Europe and the Americas from yield time series over 1961-2013. Results show that grain legume yields are significantly more variable than non-legume yields in Europe. These differences are smaller in the Americas. Our results are robust at the level of the statistical methods. In all regions, crops with high yield variability are allocated to less than 1% of cultivated areas. Although the expansion of grain legumes in Europe may be hindered by high yield variability, some species display risk levels compatible with the development of specialized supply chains.