ABSTRACT

Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................... 228

References ................................................................................................................................... 228

A number of successful sustainable agriculture systems for vegetable production have

been developed in recent years for the mid-Atlantic states of the USA. Of particular

interest is the use of an annual legume, hairy vetch, which has proved to be a beneficial

cover crop because it fits well into different cropping rotations, is capable of high nitrogen

fixation, and produces substantial biomass (Kelly et al., 1995; Teasdale and Abdul-Baki,

1997; Araki and Ito, 2004). In the UK, an assessment of agricultural practices recently

concluded that no-till agriculture is potentially more beneficial than others (Trewavas,

2004). Thanks to methods for molecular biological investigation, we are beginning to

understand how and why such practices are contributing to better crop performance and

more sustainable agricultural production, by affecting the expression of favorable genetic

potentials in crop plants.