Development of Agronomic Practices for Chickpea Production in Alberta

Chickpea production on the western Canadian prairies has been expanding consistently in the past few years, with an estimate that production will exceed 1 million acres in the next five years. The objective of this study is to evaluate two types of chickpeas under varying management treatments in order to develop agronomic production practices for southern Alberta. Experiments evaluated chickpea response to variety, inoculant, N, P, S, seeding date, and seeding rate.

Severe drought conditions existed in 2000 and as a result may have reduced the chance of response to input management in the first year of this three-year study. It was evident that chickpeas are a drought tolerant crop, and last year’s data show that the Desi type of chickpea may be more drought tolerant than the Kabuli type at all of the four test locations. Yield response to applied inoculant was significant at only one location. There was no significant yield response to N fertilizer in 2000, although results showed that protein, bushel weight, and Ca content all responded positively to applied N fertilizer. The addition of P showed a trend of increasing yield at two locations. Yield response to SO₄-S was significant at one location. Differences in seeding date have resulted in a significant yield, bushel weight, and protein response, and differences in seeding rates have resulted in a yield response. AB-20F