Promoting Chickpea as an Alternative High-Value Crop
The farmers in North Luzon are now learning the latest technology on chickpea production through the P9-million Philippine Chickpea Project of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), Benguet State University (BSU), and the Department of Agriculture-Cordillera Administrative Region (DA-CAR).
According to Dr. Myer Mula of DACAR and Dr. Fernando R. Gonzales of BSU, the proponents of the project, the project aims to promote the cultivation of chickpea, or garbanzos, as an alternative commercial crop over the next three years because it will have a significant niche in the food economy of the households, especially in the Cordillera where the daytime temperature of 70°F - 80°F and the night time temperature of nearly 65°F is suitable for the production of edible legumes like chickpea. In doing so, its commercial production would stabilize and sustain the livelihood productivity of CAR.
















