Duration: 2021-2025

In the long term, this should shift the proportion of land used for the production of animal feed in favor of direct food production. On the one hand, changing climatic conditions require and enable the cultivation of new crops. On the other hand, traditional cultures are coming back into focus. In addition, a change in consumer eating habits towards more plant-based products has recently been observed. This fact enables a more efficient form of agriculture, as the detour of plant-based feed via animal utilization results in increased land use.

Many traditional cultures, especially in the area of ​​legumes, have been greatly reduced in recent decades and as a result a lot of knowledge has been lost. The focus is on the development of methods for the optimized cultivation of traditional food crops such as lentils or dry beans as field crops. The project also includes testing new food crops and different cultivation methods for crops such as sweet potatoes and chickpeas on arable land in the foothills of the Alps. Since the chickpeas and dried beans currently on offer often come from Asia, this makes it possible to expand the range with local, stable-yielding varieties. This enables farmers to create additional business bases.