**Chapter 9 147**

*Hedysarum* Species from Caucasus *by Serebryanaya Fatima and Imachueva Djavgarat* Preface

Legumes are plants from the Fabaceae family. Fabaceae is the third largest family among the angiosperms and they have vast economic importance. These plants provide food, fodder, fuel, medicine, and many other uses. Legume crops are a low-cost protein source and sometimes called the 'poor man's protein'. Legumes can fix nitrogen, and hence the requirement of exogenous nitrogen is low. Therefore, they are used as a soil enhancer, and some of the legume species are cultivated as green manure crops. In a sustainable agricultural system, legume crops are one of the essential components. However, improving the productivity of legume crops and improving their tolerance to adverse environments are important tasks for plant biologists.

This book presents nine chapters dealing with the importance, production and various uses of legumes. In the first chapter, the status of legume crops in the world and their prospects for sustainable agriculture are discussed. In the second chapter, many aspects of soil fertility improvement by legumes are discussed. The authors discuss how legumes play a role in maintaining soil health and nutrient status. In the third and fourth chapter, various aspects of soybean production and breeding, as well as their diverse use as food, are discussed. The fifth chapter presents some important aspects of organic grain legumes in India. In chapter 6, the approaches for soybean production under salinity are described. Salinity is one of the most devastating abiotic stressors for soybean. In this chapter, the authors show the plant responses and tolerance to salinity. In the next chapter, the authors show how beneficial microorganisms could confer stress tolerance in legumes. In chapter 8, the authors discuss the bioactive compounds from velvet beans. Chapter 9 presents a fascinating legume species, Hedysarum - their

I want to give special thanks to the authors for their outstanding and timely work in producing such excellent chapters. I am very thankful to Dajana Pemac and Lada Bozic, Author Service Managers at IntechOpen, for their prompt responses during the acquisition. I believe that this book will be useful for undergraduate and graduate students, teachers, and researchers, particularly from the field of Crop Science, Soil

**Mirza Hasanuzzaman**

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University,

biology and production in the Caucasus.

Science, Plant Breeding and Agronomy.
