UNLABELLED • PREMISE OF THE STUDY Combating threats to food and nutrition security in the context of climate change and global population increase is one of the highest priorities of major international organizations. Hundreds of species are grown on a small scale in some of the most drought/flood-prone regions of the world and as such may harbor some of the most environmentally tolerant crop...

This article presents average agricultural yield data per hectare for key cereal, legume and root crops from 2001 until 2017. Data was obtained from the annual Agricultural Sample Surveys of the Central Statistics Agency (CSA) of Ethiopia. We present data at national, regional (SNNPRS) and zonal (Wolaita) levels. The data shows that average yields for all crops, at all levels, show increasing t...

44 45 Millions of subsistence farmers cultivate crops on terraces. These farmers face unique challenges 46 including severe shortages of arable land and remoteness leading to poor access to inputs 47 including nitrogen fertilizer. These challenges contribute to human and livestock malnutrition. 48 Terrace walls (risers) as a vertical surface to grow climbing or trailing legumes represents an 49...

L are used commonly in agricultural systems Legume mulches are important sources of N for cereal crop producas a source of N for subsequent crops and for maintion, particularly for organic and resource-poor producers. A field taining soil N levels. This use is particularly important study was conducted using a direct method to determine if the amount in the humid tropics where N fertilizers oft...

Cover crops constitute one of the most promising agronomic practices towards a more sustainable agriculture. Their beneficial effects on main crops, soil and environment are many and various, while risks and disadvantages may also appear. Several legumes show a high potential but further research is required in order to suggest the optimal legume cover crops for each case in terms of their prod...

Legume crops are known to have low soil N uptake early in their life cycle, which can weaken their ability to compete with other species, such as weeds or other crops in intercropping systems. However, there is limited knowledge on the main traits involved in soil N uptake during early growth and for a range of species. The objective of this research was to identify the main traits explaining t...

Biotic stress in legume crops is one of the major threats to crop yield and productivity. Being sessile organisms, plants have evolved a myriad of mechanisms to combat different stresses imposed on them. One such mechanism, deciphered in the last decade, is small RNA (sRNA) mediated defense in plants. Small RNAs (sRNAs) have emerged as one of the major players in gene expression regulation in p...

The establishment of legumes crops with phenotypic traits that favour their persistence and competitiveness in mixed swards is a pressing task in sustainable agriculture. However, to fully exploit the potential benefits of introducing pasture-based grass-legume systems, an increased scientific knowledge of legume agronomy for screening of favourable traits is needed. We exploited a short-cut ph...

Jasmonate (JA)-mediated defences play important roles in host responses to pathogen attack, in particular to necrotrophic fungal pathogens that kill host cells in order to extract nutrients and live off the dead plant tissue. The root-infecting fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum initiates a necrotrophic growth phase towards the later stages of its lifecycle and is responsible for devastating Fu...