Legumes: Past, Present, and Future

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Abstract
Legumes have been part of the cropping system of nearly every human culture but virtually never the principal food source. Their main contribution appears to have been the provision of new fixed nitrogen to the agricultural system, at the same time providing valuable protein and some essential amino acids as supplement to cereal and root diets. Increasing costs of energy for industrial nitrogen fixation and the ability to alter the legume-Rhizobium system probably will result in a more general use of leguminous crops both as a nitrogen source and directly for food.

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