Chickpea (Garbanzos) An emerging crop for the rainfed and dryland areas of the Philippines (original) (raw)

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), or garbanzos as popularly known in the Philippines, is an annual pulse crop cultivated largely in South Asia and is the third largest produced food legume in the world. Chickpea is grown in more than 50 countries. Asia has the largest share in terms of area and production (89.7%) followed by Africa (4.3%), Oceania (2.6%), America (2.9%), and Europe (0.4%). India is the largest chickpea producing country, with a global production of 5.89 million tons in 2006-2008. Chickpea is an important source of protein particularly in South Asia, where people are largely vegetarian, who either cannot afford or due to religious restrictions are forbidden to consume animal and fish protein. In the Philippines, chickpea is very popular as a key ingredient in some Filipino dishes. However, while the demand for chickpea is increasing, the Philippines continue to depend on imports to satisfy local demand. Amid the potential adverse threat of climate change, one emerging opportunity that the Philippine government is exploring is the promotion of food crops like chickpea, which show potential to grow profitably in the country's rainfed areas, have multiple uses, and are suitable for cultivation by resource-poor farmers. Chickpea is regarded as a nutritious legume highly suitable for rainfed areas like the Philippines. While considered as a 'new' crop, its economic niche in the country is immense, especially when locally produced. This information bulletin contains brief information on the characteristic, cultural management, and market requirements of the crop. The science-based knowledge highlighted in this publication speaks of the bright prospect and great potential of chickpea as a climate-change ready, profitable and nutritious crop in the country. The bulletin also outlines the way forward for the promotion as well as for the eventual commercial production of chickpea in the Philippines. We hope you find this publication useful and meaningful in boosting chickpea production in the country. Finally, we take this opportunity to profoundly acknowledge the partnership initiative of the Benguet State University (BSU) for the conduct of the initial trials on chickpea production in northern Luzon specifically in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), and the support from the Philippine Council for Agricultural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) and the Department of Agriculture (DA-CAR). We at ICRISAT believe that partnership is the key in the development of pro-poor technologies and products on crop improvement/production and value addition, and in the transfer of knowledge and technology toward improving the lives of millions of poor people particularly in the dryland tropics.