BY ALAZAR SHIFERAW
Chickpea accounts for more than 15 Percent of the Ethiopian legume production. The country is the main producer, consumer and exporter of chickpea in Africa. It had achieved a remarkable growth in chickpea productivity, production and export during the past decades.
For 20 years now, engaged in problem-solving researches, Senior legume Breeder Dr. Asnake Fikre of Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research, has been conducting and supporting agricultural science researches, especially in chickpea research. He had released disease resistant and high-yielding chickpea varieties.
Dr. Asnake chickpea breeder says chickpea input is highly needed for agro- industries. In Ethiopia, chickpea has been harvested on over 200 thousand hectares of land. It can grow on black soil and could be produced by applying crop rotation system. Apart from its enormous important food value, chickpea is one of competitive pulse harvests in the market. It has a big market demand both internally and externally.
Right now, around five million quintals of chickpea is produced annually. Yes, for the last 40-50 years, the research has been supporting and intensifying problem-solving research conducted to improve and release new and market-oriented variety breeds; varieties which can be adaptable and market-demanded breeds. Prominently, so far, 29 chickpea varieties have been released.
What is more, productivity has been made to increase from eight quintals per/hectare to 20 quintals per/hectare on the average. Researches have been conducted on chickpea as one of the legume crops.
It is cultivated coordinately as per the country’s development endeavors. It is a cool weather legume crop, especially during reproduction season it needs cool weather. But it can give yields from cool to warm weather conditions. In general, chickpea can be harvested on 2,600 meters above sea level.
Naturally, there are two types of chickpeas; red and white. But, in the market there is high demand for the white, big sized seed once and better costs both in local and global markets .Sometimes the price of white chickpea may range from 200-400 Birr than the red chickpea.
From 2012 Up to 2013EC the country has managed to earn about 68 million USD. Middle east, India and Arab countries as well as few African countries are importers of the product. Mainly our research focuses on chickpeas which promise better cost in the market.
Previously, to release a new variety, the research procedure used to take up to eight years. But currently there are some short–cutting research working procedures, which can shorten release periods.
“We are following and trying to shorten chickpea releasing periods into five to six years.” Yes, to get better varieties, research steps have to pass through various procedures, he said.
However, there are various diseases which attack chickpeas. These diseases can attack stems, roots and leaves. Supported by research, institute pays a great attention to parry their effect. Worryingly there are fungus-brought diseases.
But result is achieved in the research. Currently, there is also virus-caused disease, which makes chickpea thin and stent, there is also a disease that attack chickpea roots . But, “We could release a limited virus resistant varieties.” However, there are challenges, the released varieties could not be dispatched to all parts of the country.
In-terms of addressing the challenge, institute could not meet farmer’s demand properly. Because promoting better breed varieties should be done by far. Besides, due to certain challenges, like lack of awareness gaps, adapting new varieties to the farmer takes long period of time, he said.
Significantly, “We have published several research findings on international journals. This year alone, my research findings could be published about on 15 international review journals. Ethiopian Journal of Science, Ethiopian General Agricultural Research, Journal of Applied Sciences, among other journals, had published our researches.”
Climate change has been affecting the chickpea production. Besides, the country’ policy has been focusing more on cereals, like maize, wheat among others. The country prioritizes cereals to other crops. Legume is seen as secondary not given attention.
Besides, diseases and pest occurrence on chickpea is a very high problem. Hence, there is a need for conducting advanced bio technology application research. Not only chickpeas but other cereals also face limited challenges. They have to be areas of focus. And some duties, in-terms of market that need research has to enjoy due attention.
Ethiopia is currently among the top ten countries for area, production, productivity and export. The country has the highest average yield of chickpea that provides multiple benefits. It has high nutritive value. Chickpea as well has the ability to enrich nitrogen poor soils.
During his childhood, he used to watch farmers engaged in agricultural activities. He completed high school at Bokoji High School. “I am born to farmer parents.
That has helped me to develop better in agriculture field. I joined Haromaya University by choice. I received MSc in Haromaya and Ph.D in Belgium University in Applied Biology Sciences.” He has been engaged in researches for about 20 years on chickpea research, and published a book entitled “ Our Agriculture and Its civilization, he said.
Once Dr. Asnake Fikre, Regional Chickpea Breeder, said, “It feels good to be the first generation adopter of molecular breeding in the chickpea improvement program which made Ethiopia the first country to release the molecular breeding chickpea variety.”
Moreover, Dr. Asnake Fikre is a senior legume breeder at ICRISAT, Ethiopia. Previously he served as Director of Crop Research at EIAR where he oversaw research involving greater than 50 crop species grown throughout Ethiopia.
Prior to joining EIAR headquarters in Addis Ababa, Dr. Asnake served as Director of the Debere Zeit Agricultural Research Center. He received his Ph.D. in Applied Biological Sciences from the University of Gent, Belgium, in 2008.
His initial professional assignment was a legume breeder (chickpea, lentil, grass pea) at the EIAR Deber Zeit Agricultural Research Center. During that time he developed and released improved legume varieties, including several currently under wide cultivation.
For these efforts he has won recognition with Best Performer Awards from the Ethiopian government. He has been a constructive partner in several grain legume projects, including those funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the current USAID project on chickpea. He currently serves on the Steering Committee for the CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes.
The Ethiopian Herald January 8/2021
