Protein crop production at the northern margin of farming: to boost or not to boost

Abstract

Global changes in food demand resulting from population growth and more meat-intensive diets require an increase in global protein crop production, not least as climate change and increasing scarcity of fresh water could restrict future production. In contrast to many other regions, in Finland climate change could open new opportunities through enabling more diverse cropping systems. It is justified to re-enquire whether the extent and intensity of protein crop production are optimized, resources are used efficiently and sustainably, cropping systems are built to be resilient and whether ecological services that protein crops provide are utilized appropriately. This paper aims to analyze in a descriptive manner the biological grounds for sustainable intensification of protein crop production in Finland. Production security is considered by evaluating the effects of and likelihood for constraints typical for northern conditions, examining historical and recent crop failures and estimating ecosystem services that more extensive introduction of protein crops potentially provide for northern cropping systems now and in a changing climate. There is an evident potential to expand protein crop production sustainably to a couple of times its current area. In general, variability in protein yields tends to be higher for protein crops than spring cereals. Nevertheless, protein yield variability was not necessarily systematically higher for Finland, when compared with other European regions, as it was for cereals. Protein crops provide significant ecological services that further support their expanded production. By this means protein self-sufficiency remains unrealistic, but increased production of protein crops can be achieved. The expansion of rapeseed and legumes areas also seems to be economically feasible. From the economic viewpoint, an increase in domestic protein supply requires that farmers have economic incentives to a) cultivate protein-rich crops instead of cereals, and b) use them as animal feed instead of imported sources of protein. Environmental sustainability is an argument to justify economic support for protein-rich crops and thus increase their cultivation.

Grain legume decline and potential recovery in European agriculture: a review

“…LMC International (2009a) reported that field pea and faba bean gross margin volatilities were lower or comparable to rapeseed, wheat or barley in four out of five case study regions (Table 1). Given the fact that in some regions, production risks are comparable with competing crops and that legumes and cereals respond differently to weather conditions; grain legumes can also play a role in spreading risk (Mishra and Lence 2005;Peltonen-Sainio and Niemi 2012).…”

Do farmers rapidly adapt to past growing conditions by sowing different proportions of early and late maturing cereals and cultivars?

“…The corresponding numbers for the dairy region are 0.03, 0.18 and 0.15. The case regions thus represent substantial differences in frequencies of different cereal species and risks related to their production (Himanen et al 2012, Peltonen-Sainio andNiemi 2012). Regional datasets from Tike were used to record shifts in land use for different cereal species and cultivars.…”

“…At high latitudes, long days markedly enhance pre-anthesis development rate of cereals (Peltonen-Sainio and Rajala 2007), enabling timely harvest. Climatic constraints, however, cause substantial production uncertainty (Peltonen-Sainio et al 2009b, Peltonen-Sainio and Niemi 2012. In addition to the short growing season, northern conditions are characterized by harsh and variable winter conditions, a short period for successful spring sowing after snow melt and soil drying, early summer drought, and rapid changes at the end of summer towards non-growth-favoring autumn conditions (Mukula and Rantanen 1987, Peltonen-Sainio et al 2009a, 2011a, 2011b.…”

Commercial cultivars and farmers’ access to crop diversity: A case study from the Nordic region

“…Another crop group receiving little breeding attention are grain legumes. Nordic feed protein has been replaced by imported and cheaper (genetically modified) soya bean (Stoddard et al 2009, Peltonen-Sainio andNiemi 2012). GM methods were discovered in the early 1970s (Cohen et al 1973, Berg et al 1974) but were not implemented in Europe as in the USA and South America (Jasanoff 2005).…”