Turning the tide on pulses production in Ethiopia - Chickpea

Abstract

Chickpea crop is the third most widely grown legume crop (after soybean and bean) and of particular significance in developing countries, as providing an important source of farmer income and nutrition to poor farmers. ICARDA holds the largest chickpea collections (12,448 cultivated accessions and 268 representing 10 wild Cicer spp.), and recently a new collection of wild chickpea from South East Turkey has been included to the genebank pool. ICARDA has established chickpea breeding program since 1977, and provided thousands of chickpea breeding materials (through annual distribution of international nurseries) to national agricultural research centers (NARS) in many countries around the world including Ethiopia (such as Arerti, Habru, Ejere, Teji, Dembi), where many varieties have been released and used by small holder farmers.