GCTV Ep#8 Chickpeas
Narrator: Around 12 thousand hectares of chickpea were
sown last season in WA.
Compared to the late 1990s it’s a long way short of the 70 thousand
hectares sown.
What caused the dramatic fall in production back then was an outbreak of Ascochyta Blight
followed by a series of dry seasons.
Two factors that were to impact on what was grown and the size of farming operations.
Alan Meldrum: Industry Development Manager WA, Pulse Australia
There are a lot of growers with very fond memories of growing chickpeas in the late
90s and making quite good profits per hectare.
But in the last 10 years we’ve got a lot less growers in the
system and they’ve basically got bigger farms and so logistically incorporating a
pulse into the rotation, any new crop into the rotation becomes
a bit of a logistic nightmare.
Narrator: Grain growers weren’t the only ones with
nightmares.
Ascochyta blight gave pulse breeders plenty to worry about too.
Ian Pritchard: Research Officer DAFWA & Pulse Breeding Australia
Well it caused a complete about face or change of direction of the breeding programs from
being one based on just looking at yield and crop
architecture, canopy etc, to have to look at tolerance,
resistance for Ascochyta Blight.
So our local breeding programs had to look elsewhere in the
world for those levels of resistance and tolerance to bring back to Australia.
Narrator: Chickpea breeding was now on a new course
and then in 2006 pulse breeding was to be ‘impacted’ again.
This time it was welcomed by the industry.
Kristy Hobson: National project leader, Pulse Breeding Australia
In 2006 the main players of Pulse Breeding in Australia got together with GRDC to form
Pulse Breeding Australia which has allowed a more
coordinated and efficient approach to pulse breeding for Australian growers.
Narrator: Pulse Breeding Australia’s mantra is to
deliver better pulse varieties faster, and with new
chickpea varieties released in Central Queensland and New South Wales last year, this season’s
release of ‘603’ in the western and southern regions maintains PBA’s commitment.
Ian Pritchard: CICA-603 has been trialed throughout southern
Australia and its yield results compared to PBA
Slasher are better than PBA Slasher in most agricultural regions within the southern zone
so yes even though it is very well adapted for WA
it is well suited to southern Australia.
Darryl Anderson: Reporter What makes 063 such a well adapted variety
for Western Australia is its an early flowering, early
maturing variety compared to that states’ stock standard chickpea Genesis 836.
Ian Pritchard: So it gives greater flexibility for growers
to be able to put it in earlier which is great for
management and it’s also got a bigger seed size and a little bit nicer colour than PBA
Slasher and Genesis 836 so we can use it in the markets
as a whole or split grain.
Narrator: Part of PBA’s success is its ability to
deliver regional solutions from a national breeding base.
Kristy Hobson: While the core breeding activities are occurring
here at Tamworth each region has its own specific adaptation requirements.
So we use the key intellect through our collaborators in those
regions to deliver targeted varieties for the regions.
Narrator: Chickpea growers in the west will also have
the choice of the final 2 new varieties to come from a
state based breeding program run by the Council of Grain Growers Organisation or COGGO.
Genetic material from that now concluded chickpea program will be incorporated into PBA’s
programs.
Alan Meldrum: It contains a lot of very good material both
in disease terms and yield terms and a range of
architecture types, which are going to suit different parts of the Australian farming
landscape.
Narrator: CICA-603 not only gives WA’s grain growers
a new chickpea variety but it provides another option when making crop-sequencing decisions.
In one east coast region chickpeas have become more than a rotation option.
Kristy Hobson: In Central Queensland chickpeas have established
themselves as an integral part of the rotation and its so successful that growers need to
be careful that they don’t infringe on the 3 year rotation
phase for chickpeas to ensure their disease risks are low in the future.
Narrator: The Chickpea industry is anticipating record
production this year with a national crop in excess of
half a million hectares sown.
And even if Western Australia can return to pre Ascochyta blight
production levels in coming years, growers should feel assured they will have a market
according to Pulse Australia’s Alan Meldrum.
Alan Meldrum: We see the domestic demand for chickpeas on
the Indian sub continent as being quite insatiable.
And I don’t think there’s any risk certainly in Western Australia’s case going back to
that 60 to 70 thousand tonnes of production having any effect
on market demand.
And even with an increased production in the eastern states I still don’t
think that the market demand is going to change to
any degree and growers can be quite assured that the market demand will be high enough
to make chickpeas a sustainable part of their
rotation.
Darryl Anderson: There are more promising chickpea varieties
in the pipeline and while there are many traits flagged for improvement perhaps the one most
growers will take most encouragement from in
these latest releases is knowing they have been selected to perform even in a poor season.
Ian Pritchard: In very good years yes everything performs
well and you might get your three, three and a half
tonnes per hectare but really I think growers need to concentrate on the bottom end yields
and we’ve really taken a step up from those
800 kilos to a tonne bottom end yields and we’re more at
the 1.2, 1.5 tonnes per hectare.
Narrator: The outlook for the chickpea industry has
improved enormously over the past decade and what’s
helped make that turnaround possible is the delivery of improved varieties suited to specific
regions.
And while Pulse Breeding Australia’s nationally co-coordinated chickpea program
continues to deliver regionally, growers have reason to be confident about the industry’s
future.
ENDS
1