Legume integration in smallholder farming systems for food security and resilience to climate change

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327727 August 13, 2025 10 / 20 This information was sought to use in the development and execution of legume-rhizobium inoculation technology in the area, aiming to amplify legume yield among indigenous farmers. Thus, the survey investigated legume productivity in the region, finding common bean as the most important legume crop accounting for 45% of the yield. Cowpea follows at 16%, while faba bean and groundnut showed potential for development. Significant legume cultivation was observed across all the three agro-ecologies (Kola, Woinadega and Dega), needing developing a center for their appraisal (Fig 4a). The majority of those legumes’ diversity was recorded in the Gamo zone while a respectable number of them grow in Konso zone. Hence, we further explored the potential of the legumes in Gamo and Konso zones to show the two contrast- ing cases. In both zones, common bean was the most produced legume (84% in Konso and 41% in Gamo) (Fig 4b, 4c). Besides common bean, mung bean became the second most important legume crop, which was recently gained the attention of the farmers due to its market value and being one of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) crops. The mung bean has become a commercial crop in Gofa zone and is rapidly expanding and gaining momentum in other parts of the region. However, farmers reported severe damage to the crop by pests and declining market value, demanding for intervention. On the other side, a greater variety of legumes grew in Gamo than in Konso, reflecting variations of legume

cultivation between the zones in the region. To that end, only 3% of the farmers know about the rhizobia inoculants but never use it to enhance legume productivity (Fig 4d). Fig 2. Average fertilizer application (kg/ha) during a single cropping season across the study area. And it also shows the mean fertilizer usage per hectare and compares variation in application rates within the zone. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327727.g002