Chickpea Breeding Australia (CBA), a $30m five-year partnership between the NSW Government and Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), has announced eight regionally-based seed partners to distribute chickpea seeds to farmers.
DPI Group Director, Plant Systems Dr Alison Bowman said CBA's focus was on increasing chickpea production and developing new chickpea growing regions around Australia.
"CBA is really excited to be partnering with eight businesses across the country to promote chickpea production, as well as the adoption of new chickpea varieties across Australia," Dr Bowman said.
"Our seed partners will play a crucial role in providing growers with the latest chickpea varieties by CBA
"We know that Chickpea production offers great advantages to growers and demand for plant-based proteins is rising around the world, presenting great opportunities for industry growth."
Dr Bowman said seed partners were located all around Australia to ensure that growers have access to commercial quantities of locally grown high quality chickpea planting seed.
CBA's seed partners include:
- AG Schilling & Co, South Australia
- Australian Seed & Grain (ASG), Western Australia
- Eastern Districts Seed Cleaning Co (EDSCO), Western Australia
- multiSEED Productions, Western Australia
- Galleon Grains, Queensland
- PB Agrifood, New South Wales and Queensland
- PB Seeds, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria
- Woods Seeds, New South Wales and Queensland
Dr Bowman said that the seed partners will also be distributing CBA Captain, the first chickpea variety to be commercialised by CBA for the 2021 planting season.
"We are pleased to see that CBA Captain has shown broad adaptation and higher yields than other commercially available desi chickpea varieties," Dr Bowman said.
"CBA Captain is well suited for grower success, particularly in Queensland, NSW and WA."
