The Legume Manifesto 253 Ratar. Povrt. / Field Veg. Crop Res. 48 (2011) 253-258 Ratar. Povrt. / Field Veg. Crop Res. 48 (2011) 253-258 The Legume Manifesto: (Net)workers on Fabaceae, Unite! Aleksandar Mikić · Diego Rubiales · Petr Smýkal · Frederick L. Stoddard received / primljeno: 25.11.2010. accepted / prihvaćeno: 26.11.2010. © 2011 IFVC Summary: Legumes have been an important part of cropping systems since the dawn of agriculture. The shift in Europe from draught animals to meat animals coincided with the increasing availability of soybean meal from North and South America, and the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union promoted the growing of cereals and oilseeds at the expense of other crops, so legumes fell out of favour with farmers and decision-makers. Continental concerns about food and feed security, high prices of oil and soybean meal, and advances in the application of fundamental molecular genetics to crop species, all mean that now is a good opportunity to promote the return of legumes to European cropping systems by enhancing the efficiency of research and development on this family. Hence we propose the establishment of a Legume Society that will promote information exchange and scientific productivity by uniting the various legume research communities. Key words: food and feed security, Legume Society, modelling, networking, sustainability A. Mikić Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia D. Rubiales CSIC, Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, Córdoba, Spain P. Smýkal Agritec Plant Research Ltd., Šumperk, Czech Republic F. L. Stoddard University of Helsinki, Department of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 27 (Latokartanonkaari 5), FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland e-mail: frederick.stoddard@helsinki.fi Legumes, Past Tense: Once Upon a Time ere Were Legumes The Fabaceae is the third largest family of flowering plants, after Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with over 650 genera and 20,000 species (Lewis et al. 2005). It is an extremely diverse family of worldwide distribution, encompassing everything from arctic alpine herbs, to annual xerophytes and equatorial forest trees. Members of the family are characterized by the distinct fruit, termed a legume or pod, which gives the family its name. Another peculiarity of legumes is their symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria that provides not only added value in agriculture, but also plays important role in natural ecosystems. Legumes have always been a part of the everyday life of humans. Grain legumes such as pea (Pisum sativum L.), bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia (L.) Willd.), lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.), chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), faba bean (Vicia faba L.) and grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) are commonly recognized as among the first domesticated plant species and the most ancient crops, contributing to the ‘agricultural revolution’ in the Fertile Crescent at the end of the last Ice Age (Bellwood 2005). Subsequently and independently, soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) was domesticated in China, cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) in Africa, pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) in India and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) twice, in central and South America. Apart from these food legumes, forage legumes have been adapted from wild flora and used in managed grazing lands, and include lucerne (Medicago sativa L.), clovers (Trifolium spp.) and birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus L.), providing animal husbandry with quality forage, although the history of domestication is much more obscure. The most important and widely cultivated legume crops began to be studied first, such as pea, the key experimental organism for Mendel’s pioneering genetic research (Ellis 2007), soybean, lucerne and white clover. They are followed progressively by the less widespread ones, now reaching vetchlings (Lathyrus spp.) and vetches (Vicia spp.), legumes with pharmaceutical properties including fenugreek (Trigonella foenum- graecum L.) and liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra L.), economically important tree legumes such as Views / Stavovi www.nsseme.com/journal.html ( )