Chickpea research yields important findings

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

The results of a research project aimed at finding ways to reduce producer costs for growing chickpeas came to one overwhelming conclusion: don’t cheap out on fungicide application.

The research was conducted over a three-year period by Wheatland Conservation Area Inc., a non-profit producer-run organization in Swift Current. Funding for the project was provided by Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food (SAF), through its Agriculture Development Fund, and the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers Association.

Bryan Nybo, the Farm Manager for the Wheatland group, says the intent of the study was to improve the bottom lines of producers.

“Producers in south-western Saskatchewan have been growing chickpeas for a number of years with good financial success. In many cases, this gave farmers the economic boost they needed to make their operations viable,” said Nybo.

However, with the advancement of ascochyta, a disease common to chickpeas, and lower chickpea prices, Nybo says producers were losing this economic advantage.

“In order to help them regain these advantages, we wanted to look at ways for producers to adequately manage the disease risk while, at the same time, reducing the production costs associated with this crop,” he stated.

Experimenting with both Sanford and CDC Yuma chickpea varieties, Wheatland examined four different avenues for lowering production costs: seeding rates, fertilizer rates, row spacing, and fungicide application.

The largest treatment effect observed in the study dealt with crop variety. There was much lower disease pressure and much higher yield in CDC Yuma chickpeas compared to Sanford. However, according to Nybo, only one of the four variables studied produced a big effect on the bottom line. “Our main finding was that if you try to cut down in your fungicides, you’re in big trouble,” he said.

“The main risk to chickpeas is ascochyta. Controlling that risk proved to be the overwhelming factor in the whole project. We found that, as soon as you try to cut down on fungicide, you were really increasing your exposure.”

Nybo says fungicide can be a large cost to producers, particularly when they have to spray several times during the crop year. “At $20 or $25 per acre per application, it gets to be quite a bit.”

Nybo feels the best bet for making chickpea production more profitable for farmers may be more research, specifically in developing new varieties. He says the Crop Development Centre (CDC) at the University of Saskatchewan has been producing terrific results in improving disease resistance in chickpeas.

“The task can be pretty difficult and time-consuming, but some of the chickpea varieties out now are much, much better than what we’ve seen in the past, going to the fern-type leaf rather than the unifoliate-type leaf, which seems to have a big advantage.”

For more information, contact:
Bryan Nybo, Farm Manager
Wheatland Conservation Area Inc.
Phone: (306) 778-7289