Guerre en Ukraine : coup d’arrêt sur les légumineuses ?

From Mediterranean chickpea hummus to Indian lentil daal, pulses are still a staple in our diets, but for how long? The war in Ukraine and global warming could lead to a decline in their production. 2022. However, in a political context favorable to their development, there are numerous avenues for cooperation and complementarities between North and South.

The geopolitical and agricultural crisis and the desire for sovereignty are eclipsing pulses, even though they are essential, from field to plate, in the North and the South. Better still, they are key crops for the sustainable intensification of agricultural production in cereal systems with undeniable environmental, nutritional, economic, and social value.

Legumes: what are we talking about?

In different forms and all over the planet, we consume legumes. On our plates these are beans, chickpeas, lentils, cowpeas, etc. These food legumes are grown for their seeds for direct and exclusive use as human food. Some of these species, called protein, have also been selected and developed for animal feed such as peas and field beans. Others, finally, called oilseeds (soybean, peanut) are rich in oil and have been the subject of significant developments in the production of edible oil. The residues from the extraction of this oil (cakes) are then an important source of protein for animal feed.

Levers for the agroecological and food transition, but also for the decarbonization of agriculture.

First, food legumes help reduce the need for animal protein in diets that are too meaty, particularly in northern countries. They are also a low-cost source of protein, especially in southern countries. These legumes are particularly important for populations with low purchasing power.

From an agronomic and environmental perspective, thanks to the root symbiosis with bacteria, which legumes are the only cultivated plants capable of establishing, these plant proteins are produced without any use of nitrogen fertilizers, unlike other crops, particularly cereals. This significantly reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water pollution by nitrate due to mineral and organic fertilizers in cereal and vegetable systems. In addition, by diversifying crop successions and landscape mosaics dominated by cereals, legumes contribute to reducing pesticide use. These legumes are therefore essential from field to plate, for the products they provide for human consumption but also for their contribution to the sustainability of cereal-based agricultural and food systems.

The winning cereal/legume duo

The development of legumes must first be considered in relation to cereals and for what they bring to agri-food systems that are and will remain dominated by cereals. History and climate have also forged cereal-legume duos that complement each other both on farms and in traditional dishes. South of the Mediterranean, for example, the rainfall gradient has historically forged agricultural and food systems built around the duos of soft wheat/fava bean (found in "fou falafel" in Egypt), durum wheat/chickpea (in couscous in North Africa), and lentil/barley (in Tunisian "chorba"). In the dry zones of Africa and Asia, some of these species (peanuts, cowpeas, lentils, and grass peas) also provide straw rich enough in protein to make it valuable fodder for the resilience of mixed crop-livestock systems.

Sovereignty and agroecology: the big night for legumes?

Except for a few countries, notably India, We are still a long way from a world in which food (grain) legumes would be a major component of agricultural systems. In most countries, they represent less than 15 % of the area cultivated with cereals and legumes (FAOStat, 2020). This places us well below the recommended rotation of a return of legumes every 2 to 3 years on the same plot, return periods that must be respected to avoid the development of their pests. While some countries such as Canada have strongly developed them for export and with a view to diversifying cereal systems, production in most countries remains insufficient compared to needs (particularly in Europe) or even tends to decline in countries that are traditionally high consumers (particularly on the southern shore of the Mediterranean). Egypt, for example, like most countries in North Africa and the Middle East, imports the majority of beans, chickpeas and lentils consumed daily by a growing population. Despite the good adaptation of these species to the hot and dry conditions of these countries... We speak, and rightly so, of Egypt's very strong dependence on wheat imports, particularly Russian, but rarely on those of legumes.

Distortions between cereal and legume production induced by public policies are one explanation for this situation. Wheat purchase and price guarantees, nitrogen fertilizer subsidies, and the allocation of irrigation water primarily to cereals, as well as significantly lower R&D investments, have long hampered the development of legume crops and continue to be an obstacle.

However, these crops benefit in Europe from a favorable political context because they bring together several agricultural, food, environmental and geopolitical objectives. Their development is in line with the need for the food transition, that is to say, diets richer in plant proteins, the agroecological transition and in particular the reduction of pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers. Legumes also participate in the decarbonization of cereal-based agricultural systems whose GHG balance is heavily burdened by mineral nitrogen fertilizers. Finally, the cultivation of legumes is part of the search for food sovereignty and local production. In France, most French regions and territorial food projects support the development of food legumes. Sovereignty in plant proteins is also at the heart of the plant protein project currently under discussion between the African Union and the European Union with strong support from France.

Is the war in Ukraine a game changer?

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the surge in agricultural commodity prices, with the blockade of ports and Vladimir Putin's use of the food weapon, the international community's attention has focused on cereals and edible oils. The risks of food crises are very real and linked to structural phenomena that predate the crisis between Moscow and Kyiv.[1]. With the fear of running out of wheat or oilseeds for the next growing seasons in the countries that depend on them most, is there not a risk that the cultivation of food legumes will pay a high price?

The 2022 campaign is already expected to be in decline, with a 20% drop in global chickpea production due to global warming and the rise in prices that began in 2021.[2]Next year, if producers start producing more wheat and oilseeds, encouraged by government policies and market prices, pulses could be collateral damage of the war in Ukraine.[3] while they are already in a complicated situation. However, they could have benefited from the significant increase in the price of nitrogen fertilizers to be more widely cultivated since they do not need it.

In a context where cereal productivity gains will be limited by the high price of nitrogen fertilizers and the limitation of irrigation water due to climate change, increasing cereal areas will appear to decision-makers as the option to prioritize in the rapid search for food sovereignty. It is unlikely that food legumes will weigh heavily in this geopolitical and agricultural equation, even though research and experimental results show their advantage in mixed cropping systems. Indeed, rotation with a legume can increase the production of the following wheat by up to 30 %. The search for short-term cereal production, by further accentuating the already underway trend towards monoculture, thus immediately compromises the sustainability of this same system by preventing the agroecological and food transition.

Legume development: common challenges

In the context detailed here, it is more urgent than ever to increase scientific and technical collaboration on the place of food legumes in the sustainability and resilience of agri-food systems that will remain based on cereals for agronomic and nutritional reasons. It is not a question of replacing cereals with legumes but rather of working on the complementarities between these two crops. In this area Africa and Europe face similar challenges and can help each other.

The global challenges are shared by both the North and the South, as well as between the private and public sectors. It involves redesigning agricultural systems and diets where legumes support cereals in the search for resilience and food sovereignty. Scientific cooperation between the North and the South, as well as between the private and public sectors, is essential. Indeed, the expertise is complementary on food legumesAfrica is still well aware (but for how long?) of the genetic and culinary diversity related to species such as chickpeas, broad beans, grass peas, and cowpeas. These are the same plant crops that Europe abandoned in the last century but which it wants to produce again for local consumption. Conversely, Europe has developed research that African countries may need. Indeed, over the past ten years, European research teams have developed knowledge on technological and institutional innovations that will enable the rapid emergence of sustainable and agro-ecological sectors integrating legumes and cereals, areas where R&D programs on legumes in Africa still too often stumble.

The complementarities and common challenges are there, it is urgent to organize spaces for cooperation and consultation between all stakeholders to respond to the challenges of food security and sovereignty.

[1] We talked about it on the FARM blog: “War in Ukraine: African farmers are not discovering food crises”, War in Ukraine: African farmers are not new to food crises – FARM Foundation (fondation-farm.org)

[2] Julien Brossault, “Decrease in global chickpea production: a hummus shortage is looming”, South West, July 22, 2022.

[3] It goes without saying that the first and most significant victims of this conflict are the civilian populations exposed to war and violence. A peaceful solution to the conflict must be found as soon as possible to stop the spiral of destruction and international crises.