EU Project Promotes Cultivation of Pulses in Europe.
IGV GmbH engages in research project “TRUE” towards sustainable farming systems based on legumes Legumes: a special crop Legumes are a very special type of crop, they are characterised as a sustainable source of highly nutritious food and feed.
‘Sustainable’, since legumes require no inorganic nitrogen fertiliser, and this efficiency saving is added to by improvements to soil qualities and total productivity when deployed in a modern crop rotation.
A new, European-wide research project intends to change this.
In the project TRUE (TRansition paths to sUstainable legume-based systems in Europe), 24 project partners from 10 European countries have gotten together to explore and develop sustainable legume-based farming systems and agri-feed and food chains in the EU.
TRUE innovates across the supply chain – from the development of novel farming practices such as the use of pulses as “vegetable fertilisers” or “living manures”, to the testing of new food technologies for improved feed and food formulation.
Specific recommendations will be proposed to influence relevant policies, such as the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.
The project with the acronym “TRUE” (TRansition paths to sUstainable legume-based systems in Europe) involves 24 project partners from 10 European countries – Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain, including scientists, businesses operating in legume commodity production and processing and other actors from the practice.
The consortium is coordinated by Dr. Pietro Iannetta, who is based at the James Hutton Institute (www.hutton.ac.uk) in Scotland, UK.
IGV – for a healthy future IGV GmbH develops innovative products, facilities and processes for grain processing and biotechnology as well as foods and related products.

Planting peas and other legumes alongside cereal crops could help make farming greener, say ecologists.
Intercropping, as it’s known, could cut greenhouse gas emissions by reducing dependence on fertiliser, as well as boosting biodiversity, food security and opening up new markets for local food and drinks businesses.
This includes producing impressive crop yields without artificial nitrogen fertiliser — and inventing new ways of brewing and distilling with beans.
This is because peas and other legumes fix their own nitrogen.
And when grown with other crops such as barley, the peas supply the cereal’s nitrogen needs.
Farming also needs to diversify by growing a wider range of crops and develop new markets for local, sustainable food and drinks.
To find new markets for a larger legume crop, Dr Iannetta is also developing new ways of turning peas and beans into alcohol.
By turning pulse starch into fermentable sugars and alcohol from 40% beans intercropped with 60% barley — we have produced a beer using 40% less artificial fertiliser," says Dr Iannetta.
The final benefit of their fermentation process is that it also produces a high-protein by-product, which could be used to make fish farming more sustainable.
"These will have been produced using no human-made fertilisers, and give co-products that provide sustainable and profitable protein production for the food chain," he concludes.