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.