Flowering time is the most important adaptation trait of plants and is largely controlled by temperature and photoperiod. Evaluation of Australian faba bean genotypes found significant variation in flowering time, and in the plant responses to ambient temperature and photoperiod. This variation could be utilised to breed lines for specific growing environments, increasing yield, yield reliability and possibly expand the production zone into more marginal areas.

Due to environmental and future food challenges, legume crops should be promoted in European fields, after several decades of decreasing areas. As agronomic and environmental benefits of those crops are mainly measurable at the cropping system level, innovative cropping systems with grain legumes were designed by scientists and assessed with stakeholders. Feasible cropping systems were identified in three European local pedoclimatic contexts with improved performance compared with current cropping systems, and could thus be developed.

Mediterranean environments are of most interest in the current context of global climate change. In our work we have tested adaptation of nine pea cultivars in South European and North African locations, characterised by different agro climatic conditions within the Mediterranean climate. Our results highlighted the potential interest of genotypes HR1 and Desso in breeding programs and further studies of drought tolerance.

Cowpea is one of the most widely adapted, versatile, and nutritious grain legumes. The aim of this work was to determine the genetic variability and environmental stability of 12 cowpea genotypes at three locations in the Iberian Peninsula in two consecutive years. This study could give rise to a breeding program to develop cowpea cultivars with interesting agronomic traits.

Legume-based annual forages, once optimized, could be pivotal to intensify sustainably drought-prone cereal-livestock systems. Production and farmers’ appreciation results collected for various legume and cereal species grown in monoculture and mixture in three sites of the western Mediterranean basin indicated that pea has much greater potential than hitherto believed. This encourages its breeding and cultivation for forage besides for grain.

On a set of 46 lucerne genotypes, a positive correlation between the performance of genotypes in monoculture and in mixture was obtained. However, significant changes in genotype ranking indicated that the species of its neighbours could modify the relative performance of a genotype. Traits measured on the same genotypes grown in isolated plants explained competition intensity depending on the neighbour species.

Cold-season dormancy and prostrate habit may challenge the selection of grazing-tolerant lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) for mild-winter environments. The genetic variation and genetically based trade-offs for key traits (grazing tolerance, dormancy, plant morphology) and their implications for selection were assessed in different genetic backgrounds. The selection for grazing-tolerant germplasm can rely on large genetic variation, but it requires extensive genotype evaluation to produce material with acceptable dormancy and growth habit.

Subterranean clover is grown on over 29 Mha in southern Australia but its annual rate of genetic improvement is constrained by a long lifecycle. We present an in vitro-assisted single-seed descent system (IVASSD) to enable the turnover of up to 6.1 generations per year. To demonstrate the applicability of the system within a plant-breeding program, we have validated the IVASSD technique on a segregating breeding population, resulting in the turnover of three generations in less than one year.

In this work 11 advanced chickpea lines with resistance to Ascochyta bligt and large seeds were developed as a result of the selection carried out during 10 successive years. Molecular markers associated with the resistance to blight were applied.

Planting density decreased significantly in the Yellow-Huai-Hai summer and South soybean regions but did not significantly change in the North spring soybean region. The increased soybean yields were mainly due to increased 100-seed weight and seed number per plant. Seed protein content has not significantly changed in 60 years, but oil content has increased in all three regions.

Heat stress, during reproductive phase, is a major threat to productivity of grain legumes. This review describes the impact of heat stress on photo-assimilation, grain quality and development processes, and proposes innovative strategies to improve heat tolerance in grain legumes.

Powdery mildew is a devastating disease of many legume species, including common bean. In this work, we assessed the responses of 108 dry and snap bean accessions to PM, and characterized the genetic control of the resistance in three bean genotypes. This work provides new PM-resistance sources and markers linked to resistance genes, which will be very useful in common bean breeding programs focused on protecting bean crops against this disease.

Resistance to faba bean rust (Uromyces viciae-fabae) was identified by screening a large germplasm collection of Vicia faba under field conditions. Stability of resistance of the most-resistant accessions was further evaluated in a multi-location experiment and validated in three mega-environments defined in this work. These stable sources of resistance are highly promising to be included in international faba bean breeding programmes.

Model diagnosis revealed that no scaling ‘GGE biplot’ analysis has been the best for interpretation of multi-year and multi-location lentil data set. GGE biplot analysis demonstrated that lentil genotypes PL 101 and L 4076 are the potential sources of resistance against wilt disease. Based on the representativeness and discriminating ability ‘Sehore’ location is the ideal test location for screening against fusarium wilt in lentil in India.

A representative collection of the chickpea germplasm used by the European breeders were evaluated. The accessions were characterized according, different seed traits and basic composition carotenoids and tocopherols. Greater concentration of carotenoids was related with specific seed traits and that can be explored in chickpea breeding programs for improvement of their nutritional quality.

Chickpea, commonly known as garbanzo beans, is of great importance for human nutrition, specifically due to its high protein content. In this report, 24 chickpea varieties were compared by biochemically characterizing the storage proteins. Two of these varieties, one light-colored Kabuli and one dark-colored desi, were compered by a more advanced proteomic approach. The data obtained reaffirmed the quality of this grain protein for human nutrition, and will be important in future plant-breeding studies.

Cowpea is broadly cultivated in drought-prone areas and there is a need to address the water scarcity issue in agriculture. We assessed the effects of inoculation with a nitrogen-fixing bacterium and an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus on plant performance and yield under water-deficit. Under moderate and severe water deficit, grain yield was increased in inoculated plants. The use of inoculated cowpea has great potential for sustainable agricultural production under drought conditions.

Lucerne cover crop for winter wheat was studied as an alternative and sustainable weed-control strategy. Conventional and reduced tillage conditions, as well as presence or absence of cover crop were compared in terms of soil coverage and biomass of wheat, lucerne and weeds. Weed communities composition and functional group analysis were performed. To minimise cash-crop losses, the effect of several herbicide strategies controlling the cover crop under reduced tillage conditions were also tested.