Chickpea and lentil production in Turkey

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and lentil (Lens culinaris) are important and widely cultivated food legumes in Turkey. Extensive research on food legumes started in 1975 with the initiation of the“National Food Legumes Research Project”. Since then, four research institutes, in particular, have carried out research on breeding and agronomic aspects of these crops, which has resulted in the release and registration of a number of chickpea and lentil cultivars.

The“Utilization of Fallow Areas Project”(UFAP) was initiated in 1982 with the goal of reducing the amount of land area devoted to fallow. The first phase of the UFAP was completed in 1986 and 1.4 million hectares which had been devoted to fallow were converted to annual cropping. The second phase of the project began in 1987 and an additional 1.7 million hectares were converted to annual cropping. Lentil and chickpea are now produced on 36.9 and 38%, respectively, of the land previously devoted to fallow.

Since traditional methods are still common in chickpea and lentil cultivation, there have been no significant increases in yield. Sowing, weeding, and harvesting are still performed manually. Diseases and weeds are the most important limiting factors in production. A seed production program was established recently which is responsible for producing seed of all the registered chickpea cultivars and four registered lentil cultivars