According to experts, Russian producers are currently growing insufficient quantities of legumes.
To optimize agriculture, their share should reach 20-30%.
In 2020, in Russia, the main agricultural crops were sown in total about 80 million hectares. Of them:
Wheat — 37%.
Barley — 10%.
Sunflower — 10%.
Corn — 4%.
Oats — 3%.
Soy — 4%.
Peas — 2%.
It is clearly seen from this that at the current stage Russian agriculture strongly gravitates towards grains and sunflowers, paying little attention to legumes.
However, there are good reasons to reconsider this issue and significantly increase the proportion of legumes (beans, beans, chickpeas, soybeans, peas and lentils).
How do legumes help preserve land during crop rotation?
An important property of such crops is the independent production of nitrogen from the air. Thanks to this, it is possible not to apply a large amount of mineral fertilizers .
Not only have they become more expensive lately, their use also has negative consequences. For example, nitrogen-containing nitrate contains 33% nitrogen, the rest is salts that remain in the ground and reduce its quality.
Another aspect is that after legumes, the soil is enriched with nitrogen, which makes it possible to successfully grow other crops without the use of fertilizers for at least a year.
This trend is well understood by leading manufacturers and experts. In the Kuban, for example, back in 2018, a law was adopted, according to which:
It is forbidden to sow grain and sugar beets in the same field for two years in a row.
It is forbidden to sow sunflower more often than 1 time in 8 years.
At least once every 10 years, the field should be sown with legumes.
According to experts, crop rotation should be taken very seriously.
Having exhausted the earth by improper handling, one can wait tens and hundreds of years for its natural restoration.
Sunflower cultivation dramatically dries up the soil and deprives it of nitrogen. While legumes are «doctors» for the land and are able to restore its fertility.
From this we can draw the following conclusion: ideally, peas and soybeans should be sown in the same field once every 5 years, even better — once every three years.
The only question is the use of the crop .
The fertility of the land could be significantly increased if Russians learned to consume 200-300 grams of peas or soybeans for every kilogram of flour or bread. Or else — it would be possible to establish a massive export.
At the same time, China is ready to buy almost any amount of soybeans from Russia.
The problem is that it is extremely unprofitable to transport it from the Kuban to the eastern border of the Russian Federation.
Also, the complexity is caused by the imposed duties on the export of soybeans, which reduce the income of farmers and their motivation to expand their activities.
