Conference Agenda

Alternative crops for diversified agriculture are increasingly demanded by politics and research. Since its foundation in 1905, the State Plant Breeding Institute of the University of Hohenheim works intensively on this topic with success in several crops like rye, spelt in general and regional production of durum wheat and soybean in particular. Based on this experience, we see following major keystones to be fulfilled to establish an alternative crop: (i) the generation of a cooperating supply chain, (ii) the initial access to diverse seed accessions from genebanks or breeding programs in other world regions and (iii) breeding efforts to adopt the alternative crops to regional modern farming practice.

In this talk, the successful work in spelt and emmer will be shown as a model case, which might be used for different crops and regions in the world. On the one hand, the generation of the successful supply chain is shown with major milestones, which included very open exchange of stakeholders requests and classic research on the advantages and challenges of these crops in modern farming, milling and bread baking industry. On the other hand, for all examined alternative crops the need of better adapted varieties got rapidly visible and breeding success in spelt and emmer was and still is an important pilar for their successful establishment. Nowadays, the turnover along the supply chain is for Emmer > 1 billion €, while for spelt at least ten times higher.

Neglected crops often persist in a self-reinforcing cycle of limited cultivation, insufficient agronomic knowledge, weak market presence, and low consumer awareness. Using grass pea (Lathyrus sativus), a drought tolerant neglected and underutilised crop, as a case study, this contribution presents a coordinated intervention addressing these constraints in parallel.

Multi-year field trials demonstrated that sole cropping of grass pea under temperate Central European conditions is constrained by severe lodging and harvest difficulties. Grass pea–cereal intercropping improved system robustness, but performance depended strongly on the cereal partner. Triticale enabled the highest grass pea yields, whereas oat-based systems enhanced lodging resistance and total system yield under high precipitation, albeit at the expense of grass pea yield. These results highlight a trade-off between yield maximization and risk buffering in intercrop design.

Building on these findings, the LEGU4FOOD project tested optimized grass pea–cereal combinations on commercial farms. One participating farm combined cultivation with on-farm processing, creating a vertically integrated micro-value chain. Semi-structured interviews indicate that harvestability, post-harvest handling, and market compatibility are decisive adoption factors, and that despite lower grass pea yields, farmers preferred oat-based systems over triticale due to improved risk buffering and favorable market prospects.

In parallel, collaboration with a regional processor and local restaurants enabled small-scale product development and culinary integration. Consumer acceptance data were collected through structured interviews comparing grass pea and chickpea hummus. Although initiated within a funded project context, independent farmer inquiries and emerging interest beyond project partners suggest early diffusion effects. The long-term viability of these micro-value chains beyond project-based support has yet to be evaluated.

The findings suggest that reintroducing neglected crops may benefit from combined agronomic stabilization, farmer engagement, and market experimentation to mitigate systemic lock-in effects.