Soil improver and shelter
Lablab is an N-fixing legume that can be incorporated into cereal cropping systems. It can effectively prevent soil fertility decline by N fixation (20 to 140 kg residual N/ha into the soil) and break weed and diseases cycles. Fixed N is then available for the next crop in the rotation (Mullen, 1999). The lablab canopy prevents soil dehydration from sun and wind while the lower leaves are shed and provide mulch to the soil (Mullen, 1999).
Stand reclamation
Lablab is a good pioneer crop to prepare land, previously infested with Axonopus and Cynodon grasses, for sowing grass/legume mixtures (FAO, 2014).