Grain legumes in spanish and european agriculture

Abstract

Grain legume cultivation is continuously decreasing in Spain in spite of the long tradition of their cultivation and consumption and their well-known environmental benefits by improving soil fertility. Grain legumes have been replaced in rotations by other crops that have adapted more quickly to technological progress and are more profitable for farmers in the short term. A similar change is taking place in Europe. This generates two major dependencies that can only be alleviated by increasing legume cultivation. On the one hand, Europe faces an increasing dependency on nitrogen fertilizers, using up to 10 million tons yearly, of which about 80% are imported. In addition to this, fertilizer production uses large amounts of energy, being highly dependent on natural gas, of which the EU imports 60% of its requirements. On the other hand, EU countries import 70% of their requirements as vegetable protein. In Spain, we import 4.7 million tons of grain legumes yearly, most of which is soybean (95% of the total). The decline in human consumption does not justify the reduction in cultivation, as we import 85% of the dried beans, 60% of the lentils and 75% of the chickpeas consumed in Spain. This dependency on imports, particularly on soybean, poses a serious threat to the economy as it makes the raw feed industry, and therefore most of the meat industry, vulnerable to fluctuations in the world soybean price.