Lupins in the sustainable wheat-legume rotation based farming systems of the Western Australia wheat belt

Lupins (Lupinus angustifolius L.) form the basis of a range of dryland farming systems in the southwestern region of Western Australia (WA) which offer increased on-farm productivity and which incorporate cereal-legume rotations, pasture and integrated livestock production. Use of lupins now sustains continued cereal production in many areas of the WA wheat belt. Mathematical models have been developed which permit the impact of research aimed at alteration of the yield potential or adoption of alternative agronomic practices to be assessed both in terms of profitability and in relation to the factors which limit sustainability. The value and utility of lupins as a grain legume crop are limited by a number of physiological features that reduce the yield and harvest index, restrict the area sown to particular soil types and leave the species susceptible to a number of fungal and viral diseases and to competition by a range of weeds. The research programmes of the Co-operative Research Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture address these problems, and, in the case of overcoming the physiological restrictions to yield or in providing new disease resistant lines, a genetic engineering approach is being applied. Both the research programmes and the genetic strategies being employed to address their aims are outlined. (author). 32 refs, 5 tabs