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Researchers are investigating whether beans, peas, and lentils could help to save UK farming from environmental issues, the climate crisis, and global instability.
The project will examine whether reintroducing edible legumes into crop rotations dominated by wheat, rapeseed, and potatoes can help the UK food system survive.
Read more: The June Heatwave Killed Up To 3 Million Broiler Chickens In France Alone
Madalitso Mgunda, a postgraduate student at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, is leading the research. Mgunda has more than six years of experience in sustainable agriculture and food systems in Malawi, including supporting bean, cowpea, and soybean value chains with the World Food Programme.
“The UK’s biggest crops, including wheat, barley and potatoes, are highly vulnerable to climate change,” Mgunda said. “Extreme heat, spring drought, unseasonal flooding, together with changing disease and pest risks, pose a real threat.”
It is hoped that diversifying UK crops with beans, peas, and lentils could help reduce reliance on fertilizers and improve soil health. Roughly 70 percent of UK soil is managed by farming, and nearly 40 percent of the arable soils in England and Wales are currently degraded, primarily due to intensive animal agriculture.
‘This research will explore the realities facing Norfolk farmers and the wider supply chain’
In the UK, just 20 percent of land is used for crops, and half of that land is used for cereal production. About 60 percent of UK cereal production is wheat, and 44 percent of that wheat goes towards feeding farm animals, not humans.
More than a third of farmers made no profits in 2024, and of those that did, just 14 percent reported a profit of 10 percent or more. In June, Green Party leader Zack Polanski warned that the food system is “close to collapse.” Meanwhile, the Guardian has revealed that the UK could experience food shortages in less than five years.
“This research will explore the realities facing Norfolk farmers and the wider supply chain, helping to identify what changes would be needed to make legume production a more viable option in the future,” Mgunda said.
Read more: UK Farming Roadmap Calls On Farmers To Swap Animals For Lentils
Legumes and the UK’s new farming roadmap
The UK’s new farming roadmap has proposed that farmers transition away from animal agriculture – which is inefficient, unsustainable, and bad for animal, planetary, and human health – and grow legumes and other sustainable crops instead.
However, the roadmap received pushback from advocacy organizations such as Sustain, agricultural lobbying groups such as the NFU, and farmers themselves. It contains little clarity over how its proposed changes will be achieved, and makes no new funding available to back up the roadmap and support farmers.
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