Chickpeas

Traditionally, chickpea farmers in California like those in West Asia and North Africa (WANA) avoided winter sowing because of the risk of heavy crop loss due to two factors: a fungal disease called Ascochyta blight that can kill plants, reduce yield and affect seed quality; and cold stress in years with a severe winter. However, winter sowing produces plants with a longer flowering period, more pods, and higher yields than those sown in spring. This is because crops get the benefit of winter rainfall, and lower temperatures as they approach maturity, so that the moisture they do receive is less subject to evaporation.
     Now, because of collaborative research efforts, winter sowing is feasible and California farmers have a variety to switch from spring sowing to winter sowing. Scientists from ICARDA, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)—a sister Center based in India—the US, and WANA countries have collaborated to develop chickpea cultivars that are tolerant to cold and Ascochyta blight. The new cultivars have a yield advantage of 60 to 100% over spring types. The area under winter chickpeas in WANA has increased rapidly from 1300 ha (3200 acres) in 1988 to about 150,000 ha (370,000 acres) in 1998, potentially worth an extra annual income of US$ 52.5 million for farmers.
     Ascochyta blight was also starting to become a major problem for growers across Washington and Idaho in the late 1980s, although for different reasons as here the climate is too cold for winter sowing. Help came in the form of ‘Dwelley’ and ‘Sanford’, varieties of blight-resistant chickpea developed by scientists at Washington State University and USDA-Agricultural Research Services (ARS) from improved germplasm supplied by ICARDA. Farmers currently grow 25,000 to 35,000 acres of chickpeas in the Palouse area of Washington State—split almost equally between these two varieties. Production in Palouse is expected to top out at about 50,000 acres. Another variety, ‘Evans’, which flowers about 5–7 days earlier and matures 3–5 days earlier, is generating much interest among farmers. All three varieties are sister selections from the cross of ICARDA line FLIP85-58 with Suratato-77.
     Scientists in the USA are now focusing on the use of ICARDA germplasm to produce a large-seeded ‘Spanish-White’-type chickpea adapted to the Palouse region.
     Under an informal arrangement, ICARDA provides USDA/ARS, specifically the Western Regional Plant Introduction Station at Pullman, Washington, with all perennial Cicer species collected, as USDA/ARS has the facilities to maintain these in hydroponics. In turn, the Station gives ICARDA scientists seeds when needed.
     On-going projects on chickpea include two with USDA/ARS and Washington State University: Gene mapping of economic traits to allow marker-assisted selection in chickpea and lentil; Exploitation of existing genetic resources of food legumes. WSU is also working with ICARDA on Ascochyta blight in chickpea, while University of California, Davis, has identified a cultivar, ‘FLIP 90-15C’, with resistance to Ascochyta blight, and with a large seed size, for release under California conditions. This will also permit winter sowing which will double the yield potential in California.