According to Farming UK, the 31.5 million Green Pig project is investigating the potential of using home grown legumes in the diets of growing and finishing pigs.

The Defra project brings together plant breeders and growers, pig feed manufacturers, producers and industry organisations such as BPEX

BPEX pig technical manager Dr Pinder Gill said: "The aim is to find an home-grown feed as an alternative to soya which will closely match the needs of a pig.

"The benefits should be lower costs for producers and a better environment as this feed would not have to be transported anything like as far as soya."

The three-and-a-half year project has three academic partners Scottish Agricultural College (SAC), University of Nottingham and National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB)).

There is also support from ten partners: Union Nationale Interprofessionelle des plantes riches en Proteins (UNIP), BOCM Pauls, Evonik/Degussa, Genesis QA, Harbro, Premier Nutrition, Processors and Growers Research Organisation (PGRO), BPEX, Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) and the Soil Association. The overall project co-ordination rests with SAC and the project manager is Dr Jos Houdijk.