India wants to corner PHL’s chickpea surplus

India has expressed interest to corner all possible surplus production of chickpea in the Philippines as soon as production takes off next year, an Indian agriculture scientist said. "I think the Indian government is very much willing to buy whatever the Philippines can produce. We are a ripe and ready market. We are the world's biggest producer and consumer of chickpea yet we still import," said Dr. Pooran M. Gaur, principal scientist for chickpea breeding at the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). Chickpea, commonly known in the Philippines as garbanzos, can be grown in cool-climate location especially in Benguet province in northern Luzon, according to a research initiated through ICRISAT director general William Dar, with the Benguet State University as the program implementer. ICRISAT had launched the project with the Agricultural Research Bureau and the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development. The study showed the crop, if planted in cool climate location, could yield as much as 2.4 to 2.5 million metric tons in a planting season. Dr. Gaur noted that a three-year research project in Benguet is set to expire by 2011, and it will set the tone for the massive propagation of chickpea in the Philippines for domestic consumption and subsequently for export to India, Bangladesh, Paksitan and Nepal. But according to Dar, chickpea production has not been introduced in rain-fed areas of Northern Luzon due to lack of information and available planting materials. "All the materials that were used in the study were from the Institute. We are very willing to partner with the Philippine government to produce chickpea domestically such that we are prepared to donate new cultivars or seeds for commercial propagation. Chickpea is one of the crops of the future. Global food security will be easily met if the governments of the world will support the cultivation of climate change-ready crops like legumes," said Dar. Figures from ICRISAT showed that in the last decade, the Philippines imported as much as 745,000 metric tons chickpea with a value of almost $500,000 per year, which the country gets from India, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Mexico, Australia, and Canada. Dr. Myer Mula, seed system expert at the ICRISAT, said the average global productivity continues to be low at 700-800 kilograms per hectare, "mainly because chickpea is generally grown under rain-fed condition." — LBG, GMANews.TV