title: Estimating variability in grain legume yields across Europe and the Americas.
abstract: Grain legume production in Europe has recently come under scrutiny. Although legume crops are often promoted to provide environmental services, European farmers tend to turn to non-legume crops. It is assumed that high variability in legume yields explains this aversion, but so far this hypothesis has not been tested. Here, we estimate the variability of major grain legume and non-legume yields in Europe and the Americas from yield time series over 1961-2013. Results show that grain legume yields are significantly more variable than non-legume yields in Europe. These differences are smaller in the Americas. Our results are robust at the level of the statistical methods. In all regions, crops with high yield variability are allocated to less than 1% of cultivated areas. Although the expansion of grain legumes in Europe may be hindered by high yield variability, some species display risk levels compatible with the development of specialized supply chains.
authors.affiliation: INRA, UMR 211 Agronomie, F-78850, Thiverval-Grignon, France.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cernay
authors.affiliation: 1] INRA, UMR 211 Agronomie, F-78850, Thiverval-Grignon, France [2] AgroParisTech, UMR 211 Agronomie, F-78850, Thiverval-Grignon, France.
authors.forename: Tamara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ben-Ari
authors.affiliation: 1] INRA, UMR 211 Agronomie, F-78850, Thiverval-Grignon, France [2] AgroParisTech, UMR 211 Agronomie, F-78850, Thiverval-Grignon, France.
authors.forename: Elise
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pelzer
authors.affiliation: 1] INRA, UMR 1018 Sciences pour l'Action et le Développement: Activités, Produits, Territoires, F-78850, Thiverval-Grignon, France [2] AgroParisTech, UMR 1018 Sciences pour l'Action et le Développement: Activités, Produits, Territoires, F-78850, Thiverval-Grignon, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Marc
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Meynard
authors.affiliation: 1] INRA, UMR 211 Agronomie, F-78850, Thiverval-Grignon, France [2] AgroParisTech, UMR 211 Agronomie, F-78850, Thiverval-Grignon, France.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Makowski
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000569:Americas; D002523:Edible Grain / Q000254:growth & development*; D005060:Europe; D007887:Fabaceae / Q000254:growth & development*