The history of chickpea cultivation and breeding in Israel

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an ancient crop, mentioned in the Bible and in the Jerusalem Talmud. In the last 60 years, chickpea cultivation and breeding have undergone great advances. Those in cultivation have involved mainly changing the sowing dates and developing disease management for Ascochyta blight. In the last 10 years, to increase sowing areas, effort has been invested in developing agrotechniques for immature green chickpea harvesting. Today, breeding efforts are focused mainly on producing erect and high-yielding cultivars that are resistant to Ascochyta blight and Fusarium wilt. Moreover, in the last decade, breeding programs for early flowering have been initiated in the south of Israel, in areas with terminal drought, as well as for resistance to herbicides and the broomrape Phelipanche aegyptiaca. Thanks to all of these efforts, today chickpea is the major pulse crop in Israel.