Problem soils in cool season food legumes- Current knowledge and future prospects

Abstract

Problem soils impose various stresses on plants and reduce crop yield significantly. As a sizeable area under food legume crops falls under the problem soils, development of tolerant varieties and appropriate agronomic practices to ameliorate problem soils are required to increase food legumes production. The current research efforts towards the development of cultivars tolerant to problem soils and soil amelioration measures are very limited. There is a lack of knowledge on physiological and genetic basis of mechanisms contributing towards tolerance to problem soils. . Recent advances in high throughput phenotyping and genotyping (next generation sequencing) platform offer new suites of technologies that facilitate the understanding of tolerance mechanisms, accelerate the genetic gains and develop improved cultivars better adapted to adverse soil conditions in a rapid manner. This review examines various edaphic problems, discuss recent efforts towards the development of appropriate technologies including tolerant varieties, soil amelioration methods and innovation in agronomic practices that are contributing to, or potentially can contribute to adaptation of food legume crops such as lentil, chickpea, faba bean, and field peas in problem soils.