Harnessing the Potential of Forage Legumes, Alfalfa, Soybean, and Cowpea for Sustainable Agriculture and Global Food Security

Abstract

Substantial improvements in access to food and increased purchasing power are driving many people toward consuming nutrition-rich foods causing an unprecedented demand for protein food worldwide, which is expected to rise further. Forage legumes form an important source of feed for livestock and have potential to provide a sustainable solution for food and protein security. Currently, alfalfa is a commercially grown source of forage and feed in many countries. However, soybean and cowpea also have the potential to provide quality forage and fodder for animal use. The cultivation of forage legumes is under threat from changing climatic conditions, indicating the need for breeding cultivars that can sustain and acclimatize to the negative effects of climate change. Recent progress in genetic and genomic tools have facilitated the identification of quantitative trait loci and genes/alleles that can aid in developing forage cultivars through genomics-assisted breeding. Furthermore, transgenic technology can be utilized to manipulate the genetic makeup of plants to improve forage digestibility for better animal performance. In this article, we assess the genetic potential of three important legume crops, alfalfa, soybean, and cowpea in supplying quality fodder and feed for livestock. In addition, we examine the impact of climate change on forage quality and discuss efforts made in enhancing the adaptation of the plant to the abiotic stress conditions. Subsequently, we suggest the application of integrative approaches to achieve adequate forage production amid the unpredictable climatic conditions.

Keywords: alfalfa; cowpea; forage legumes; forage quality; forage yield; genetic manipulation; quantitative trait loci; soybean.

FIGURE 1

An integrated approach for achieving sufficient fodder and feed for livestock. Several cultivated or wild relatives of legume crops are known to inherently possess high-quality forage characteristics. Such germplasm can be scrutinized to identify QTL/gene/SNP associated with forage quality parameters or yield-related traits. This information can either be utilized in MAS/GS for genomics-assisted breeding or in genetic engineering for improving forage digestibility and associated traits in current forage legume cultivars. Implementation of sustainable crop management practices such as intercropping may help to achieve high-quality forage with greater yields, and assure food security in a future scenario of climate variability. MABB, marker-assisted backcross breeding; MAS, marker-assisted selection; QTL, quantitative trait loci; SNP, single nucleotide polymorphism; GS, genomic selection; N, nitrogen; P, phosphorous.