Chickpea: a nutritious cash crop and how to grow it

When Ramadan comes, spiced chickpeas take their place on almost every iftar plate in Bangladesh. And not only in the month of fasting: all year round, as dal, as chotpoti, as ghugni or just roasted, chickpeas are part of what people eat in villages and cities alike. They are exceptional in nutrition as well as taste, and for the farmer they are a crop that pays well for modest cost. Health-conscious eaters value them more every year.

Yet much of the chickpea Bangladesh eats comes from abroad. According to the Australian farm news outlet Grain Central, Bangladesh was the biggest buyer of Australia's chickpea exports in the 2023-24 season, taking more than 336,000 tonnes. There is, in other words, plenty of room to grow more chickpeas at home, which could raise farm incomes and reduce dependence on imports. This feature sets out the chickpea's nutritional value, its benefits and the details of growing it.

Chickpeas are an excellent source of protein, fibre and minerals. According to the US Department of Agriculture's food database, 100 grams of boiled chickpeas contain about 164 kilocalories of energy, about 8.9 grams of protein, 7.6 grams of dietary fibre and about 2.9 milligrams of iron. Because pulses supply protein more cheaply than meat or fish, they play a big part in the nutrition of ordinary households.

• Protein-rich: chickpeas help the body build muscle.
• Fibre: aids digestion and helps relieve constipation.
• Vitamins and minerals: they contain iron, magnesium, zinc and the B-complex vitamins.
• Moderate calories: thanks to their fibre and protein, a small helping fills you up, which helps with weight control.

Chickpeas are versatile too. They are cooked as dal and eaten as a savoury snack throughout the year, including the holy month of Ramadan, and ground chickpea dal becomes besan, the gram flour used for fritters such as peyaju and beguni.

The chickpea has a long history. Its scientific name is Cicer arietinum, and researchers believe people first cultivated it about ten thousand years ago in western Asia, around present-day Turkey. From there it spread to the Indian subcontinent and much of the world. In Bangladeshi villages, the tender young shoots of the chickpea plant are also cooked as a leafy green in early winter, making the plant a source of food twice over.

Nutritionists point to several particular benefits. It is worth remembering that these come from eating chickpeas as part of a balanced diet; no single food cures disease on its own.

• Heart health: the fibre and antioxidants in chickpeas help keep the heart healthy.
• Blood sugar: chickpeas have a low glycaemic index, a measure of how fast a food raises blood sugar after eating, which makes them useful in controlling blood sugar.
• Bones: the calcium and magnesium in chickpeas strengthen bones.
• Weight: fibre keeps you full for longer, curbing overeating.
• Skin: the vitamin E in chickpeas helps keep skin healthy.

At iftar, though, chickpeas are often fried in plenty of oil. Cooking them with less oil, or adding boiled chickpeas to a salad, brings out their full nutritional value.

Chickpeas are a friend of the soil as well as of people. Like other pulses, the chickpea grows small nodules on its roots, home to helpful bacteria called rhizobium. These capture nitrogen from the air and make it available to the plant. That is why chickpeas need comparatively little nitrogen fertiliser, and why the crop that follows them also benefits from some of the soil's added fertility. Sowing chickpeas in winter after the aman rice harvest, instead of leaving the land fallow, adds an extra crop from the same field.

The chickpea is a rabi, or winter, crop. It grows well on loam, sandy loam and clay loam. Cultivation usually begins between November and January, but the best window for a good yield is narrower: the 5th to the 25th of the Bengali month of Agrahayan, which is 20 November to 10 December. In the Barind tract of Rajshahi, seed should go in a little earlier, in the second to third week of Kartik, or from the last week of October to the first week of November.

Chickpea plants cannot survive in waterlogged ground. Choose land from which excess rainwater can be drained away quickly.

The first condition of a good yield is a good variety. The Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) has developed several chickpea varieties suited to the country's weather and soils. The Bangladesh Agro-Meteorological Information Service lists BARI Chola-1 to 9, BINA Chola-1 to 8 and several other improved varieties. Five well-known BARI varieties are described below. Each description gives the weight of a thousand seeds, which shows how large the grain is.

BARI Chola-2 (Baral): a green plant with seed larger than local varieties, light brown, weighing 140 to 150 grams per thousand. Its large grain makes it popular with both growers and buyers. The dal cooks in 30 to 35 minutes and contains 23 to 27 per cent protein. It matures in 120 to 130 days and yields 1.3 to 1.6 tonnes per hectare. It resists wilt, the disease that makes plants collapse.

BARI Chola-3 (Barendra): an upright, light green plant with fairly large leaflets and fresh tips. The seed is quite large, at 185 to 195 grams per thousand. It cooks in 40 to 44 minutes and contains 23 to 26 per cent protein. Sown at the right time, it matures in 115 to 125 days. It is best suited to the Barind tract of Rajshahi and yields 1.8 to 2.0 tonnes per hectare.

BARI Chola-4 (Jorafool): a medium upright plant with dark green leaves and brownish marks on the stem. The seed is slightly flattened at the sides, smooth-skinned and light brown, weighing 132 to 138 grams per thousand. Plants stand 50 to 60 centimetres tall. It cooks in 32 to 38 minutes and contains 18 to 21 per cent protein. It matures in 120 to 125 days, yields 1.9 to 2.0 tonnes per hectare and resists fusarium wilt.

BARI Chola-5 (Pabnai): small seed, greyish brown, with a very distinct hilum, the scar where the seed was attached to the pod. The seed is somewhat flattened at the sides and smooth-skinned, weighing 110 to 120 grams per thousand. It cooks in 35 to 40 minutes and contains 20 to 22 per cent protein. It matures in 125 to 130 days and yields 1.8 to 2.0 tonnes per hectare.

BARI Chola-6 (Navarun): a slightly rounded, smooth seed of bright yellowish brown, larger than local varieties, at 155 to 165 grams per thousand. It cooks in 32 to 37 minutes and contains 19 to 21 per cent protein. It matures in 125 to 130 days and yields 1.8 to 2.0 tonnes per hectare. Its special strength is that even when sown late, it yields more than other varieties.

Hectares are unfamiliar to many farmers, so it helps to think in bighas. A bigha of 33 decimals is about 0.134 hectares. A yield of 1.8 to 2.0 tonnes per hectare therefore means roughly 240 to 270 kilograms per bigha. For a variety such as BARI Chola-2, yielding 1.3 to 1.6 tonnes per hectare, it comes to about 175 to 215 kilograms per bigha. Reaching those yields, of course, depends on timely sowing, balanced fertiliser and good control of pests and disease.

So when choosing a variety, think about your area and your sowing date. BARI Chola-3 suits Barind farmers; BARI Chola-2 or 4 suits land with a history of wilt; and BARI Chola-6 is a good option when the aman harvest runs late. The local sub-assistant agriculture officer can advise further.

Plough and harrow the land several times until the soil is fine and crumbly. Mix in organic manure and the necessary chemical fertilisers at the final ploughing. Before sowing, the seed must be treated with a fungicide. Seed treatment kills disease organisms clinging to the seed, so that foot rot and other diseases are less likely at the seedling stage. Choosing clean, plump seed of a high-yielding variety matters just as much.

Chickpea seed can be broadcast or sown in rows. In rows, keep 40 centimetres between rows; the Bangladesh Agro-Meteorological Information Service advises 5 to 6 centimetres between seeds and a depth of 2 to 3 centimetres. Row sowing needs 45 to 50 kilograms of seed per hectare; broadcasting needs somewhat more, 50 to 60 kilograms.

Rows have many advantages. The plants share light and air evenly, weeding is more convenient, and when pests or disease appear, one can walk between the plants to inspect and spray.

All the fertiliser for chickpeas goes into the field at the final ploughing. According to the Bangladesh Agro-Meteorological Information Service, the doses per hectare are roughly as follows:

• Organic manure: 5 to 8 tonnes
• Urea: 40 to 60 kilograms
• TSP (triple superphosphate): 80 to 90 kilograms
• MoP (muriate of potash): 50 to 60 kilograms
• Zinc sulphate: 6 to 7 kilograms
• Boron fertiliser: 5 to 6 kilograms

In areas where chickpeas have not been grown before, a recommended microbial fertiliser, or biofertiliser, can be used. This is the rhizobium bacterium itself: mixed with the seed, it helps nodules form quickly on the roots. The usual advice is 80 grams of biofertiliser per kilogram of seed; the Bangladesh Agro-Meteorological Information Service's current guidance puts it at 90 grams. With the biofertiliser, or inoculum, no urea is needed. It is best to set fertiliser doses on the basis of a soil test.

Chickpeas need little irrigation. If the soil lacks enough moisture, give a light irrigation after sowing, and a light irrigation during drought also helps. On the other hand, keep drains open so that heavy rain does not waterlog the field. Weed once within 30 to 35 days of sowing, and keep the field clean after that so the chickpea plants get all the soil's nutrients and moisture.

Chickpea crops are attacked by blight, wilt and cutworm, and the losses are heavy if nothing is done in time. One of the most damaging pests of all, though, is the pod borer.

The damage: the larvae, or caterpillars, eat young leaves, flowers and shoot tips. As the pods fill, they bore into them and eat the soft seeds inside. A single larva can ruin 30 to 40 pods before it matures, so a heavy attack cuts the yield sharply.

Control: pick the larvae by hand and destroy them while they are still small. If the attack is heavy, spray one of Decis 2.5 EC, Ripcord 10 EC, Cymbush 10 EC or Fesom 10 EC at 1 millilitre per litre of water, once or twice at 15-day intervals. When using pesticides, cover the face and hands and follow the instructions on the label.

Wilt: when seedlings are infected, they die with no change in leaf colour. When older plants are infected, the leaves gradually yellow, and the plant droops and dries out. Cut an infected stem lengthwise and the centre is black. To manage it, grow resistant varieties such as BARI Chola-2 and BARI Chola-4, burn crop residues and use plenty of organic manure.

Foot rot: most common in seedlings. Infected plants turn yellow, black patches appear where root meets stem, and the plant comes up with barely a tug. A white web of fungus and small bodies like mustard seeds, called sclerotia, can be seen at the base. To manage it, burn crop residues, apply fertiliser in balance, and treat seed with Vitavax-200 at 2.5 to 3 grams per kilogram of seed.

Botrytis grey mould: this appears as the plants grow or as pods begin to form. Symptoms show on stems, leaves, flowers and pods, where a grey fungal growth can be seen. It spreads fast when plants are too dense and the air is humid. To manage it, burn crop residues, treat seed with Bavistin or Thiram at 2.5 to 3 grams per kilogram, and when the disease appears, spray Bavistin at 0.2 per cent two or three times at 10 to 12-day intervals.

Note that for all three diseases the advice includes burning crop residues. Disease organisms survive in the remains of old plants and spread to the crop again the next season. Rotating chickpeas with other crops, instead of growing them on the same land year after year, also reduces disease pressure.

Chickpeas can be harvested 90 to 120 days after sowing, a little earlier or later depending on the variety. The harvest usually falls between the first week and the middle of the Bengali month of Chaitra, which is from mid-March to the end of March. When plants and pods turn yellowish brown and dry, the crop is ready. Wait too long and the pods may split and drop their seed in the field. Cut the plants, dry them in the sun, thresh out the grain, then dry it thoroughly before storing. Threshing and drying on a tarpaulin, sacking or a clean paved yard rather than bare earth keeps soil, grit and moisture out of the grain. It is also wise to set aside chickpeas meant for seed separately, so that plump, healthy seed is at hand next season.

The battle does not end at harvest. The greatest enemy of stored pulses is the pulse beetle, whose adults and larvae both do damage. They bore through the seed coat and eat the kernel inside, leaving the grain light. The seed loses its ability to germinate, and the grain becomes unfit to eat.

Control: clean the grain well before storing. Dry it until its moisture content is below 12 per cent; well-dried grain cracks audibly when bitten. For chickpeas kept as seed, mixing 300 grams of malathion or Sevin 10 per cent dust per tonne prevents insect attack. Two Phostoxin tablets can also be used per 100 kilograms of stored pulses, but only in an airtight, sealed space. Phostoxin gives off a poisonous gas, so it must never be used in living quarters and must be kept out of children's reach.

The economic case for chickpeas is clear on several counts. First, there is demand in the market all year, and it rises sharply before Ramadan. Second, with proper care the cost of production is low, because the crop needs little irrigation and, with biofertiliser, no urea. Third, much of the country's demand is still met by imports, so a farmer who grows more at home need not worry much about finding buyers. If good-quality production rises, openings in international markets may follow.

All in all, the chickpea is not only a nutritious food but a cash crop for the farmer. With the right variety, timely sowing, treated seed and a close watch on pests and disease, this winter crop can bring a good income. It is an excellent food for health-conscious eaters, and in the field it improves the soil. For a farmer whose land lies idle in winter after the aman harvest, chickpeas can be an effective way to earn more from the same field and put more nutrition on the family's plate.

Photo: Chickpea plants (Cicer arietinum), Carl Davies, CSIRO / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)