CHICKPEA FARMING
Chickpea is the most grown plant among the edible legumes cultivated in our country, after beans and lentils. The fact that it is the plant most resistant to drought and heat after lentils has made chickpea one of the most important plants of semi-arid and arid areas. For this reason, it has found a place in the agricultural pattern of the east-ern, southeastern and central Anatolian regions of our country.
SOIL PREPARATION: Due to its deep root structure and resistance to drought, it does not have soil selectivity. It can be cultivated in almost all types of soil. However, soils that are sandy-loamy, have no drainage problems, have good permeability, are rich in nutrients, and are close to neutral (pH 6-8) are considered ideal for chickpea cultiva-tion. Any ponding of water on the field surface, even for a short time, is not desirable as it will slow down development and cause root-stem rot diseases. Very saline soils are not suitable for chickpea cultivation, as they are one of the important factors lim-iting chickpea production. The lands where chickpeas will be planted are plowed in the autumn. Plowing can be done with a plow at a depth of 15-20 cm. The soil that has overwintered in this way is cultivated a little shallower 2-3 times with tools such as a crow's foot or a disc harrow, before planting. It is sufficient for this process to be 10-15 cm deep. Then, the field surface can be leveled with a rake. In this way, the field is made ready for planting. It should never be forgotten that in soils cultivated more deeply or more than necessary, the existing moisture will be lost and will have a negative impact on the development of the plant.

PLANTING TIME: Since chickpea is a summer plant, planting is done in spring. To give a general calendar, the suitable time for planting is between March 15 and April 30. Sometimes, especially in varieties sensitive to anthracnose disease, planting can be postponed to mid-May to minimize the effect of the disease. However, while trying to avoid anthracnose disease by means of late planting, it should never be forgotten that the yield will decrease due to late rains and that the plant also has the risk of contracting anthracnose disease due to these late rains. Small-grained "Desi" type chickpea varieties can be planted earlier because they are more resistant to cold than large-grained "Kabuli" type chickpea varieties. While the average germination tem-perature for these is 5 oC, the minimum soil temperature for coarse grained "kabuli" type chickpea varieties should be 10 oC. Although it is resistant to heat and drought, if the flowering and pod formation period coincides with a very hot and dry period, the flower and pod drop rate increases. In very hot and dry regions, adjustments can be made to the planting time taking this into account. As a result of too late planting, the plants remain short, the yield decreases and the maturation of the pods formed later on the plant is delayed.
PLANTING METHOD: Chickpeas can be sown by broadcasting, or they can be sown in rows by machine. Broadcast planting is not desirable because more seeds are wast-ed and uniformity cannot be achieved as a result of the seeds not falling to the ap-propriate and equal depth, and therefore irregular plant development is observed in the field. Since the seeds are placed equally at the appropriate depth due to row planting by machine, emergence will be simultaneous and plant development in the field will be uniform. Unless absolutely necessary, machine planting should always be preferred.

DISTANCE INTER-ROW AND OVER-ROW Planting chickpeas in rows provides an ad-vantage in terms of weed control. Different row spacings are used in chickpea culti-vation in various regions of the world. These row spacings vary between 15 cm and 100 cm. When the number of plants per decare is kept constant, varieties planted in narrow row spacing (15-20 cm) provide higher yields than varieties planted in wide row spacing (90-100 cm). In our country, planting is done in row spacings varying from 20-30 cm to 45-70 cm. Planting in wide rows (45-70 cm) allows mechanical weed control, but the yield is low. Planting in narrow row spacings (20-30 cm) will not require additional control as weed growth will be prevented. As a result, consid-ering the available mechanization possibilities, row spacings varying between 20-70 cm can be used. However, the most ideal row spacing is 25-35 cm. As row distance, different distances are used in various countries of the world. This distance can vary from 3-5 cm to 10-12 cm. In sowing, it would be most appropriate to adjust the row spacing to an average of 5-8 cm.
SEED AMOUNT The amount of seed to be sown per decare varies depending on the sowing method, row spacing, 1000 grain weight of the variety to be planted and the germination power of the seed. If it is to be sown as broadcasting, 15-20 kg of seeds per decare should be calculated. This amount may increase slightly in varieties with very coarse grains. In row planting, if the distance between rows is 25-35 cm and the distance between rows is 5-8 cm, an average of 35,000-60,000 seeds should be sown per decare. If 1000 TA of the variety is 400 g, approximately 14-24 kg per dec-are; If 1000 TA is 300 g, 10-18 kg per decare; If 1000 TA is 500-550 g, 18-30 kg of seeds will need to be sown per decare. The larger the seed of the variety (higher 1000 seed weight), the higher the amount of seed that needs to be sown per decare. If planting will be done in wider row spacings, these specified seed quantities may be slightly less. As a result, if 25-35 cm row spacing and 5-8 cm row spacing, which are considered the most ideal, are taken as a basis, an average of 15-18 kg of seeds per decare should be used.

PLANT DEPTH: It is most appropriate to plant at a depth of 5-8 cm. In deeper plantings, germination and emergence times may be prolonged, a decrease in the flowering rate and, accordingly, a decrease in the number of pods produced by the plant may be observed. This ultimately causes reduced efficiency. In some of our regions, in cases where planting is delayed or the upper part of the soil is dry, planting is done 10-15 cm deep to ensure that the seed is left in a moist environment and thus emergence is guaranteed.
FERTILIZATION: First of all, a soil analysis must be done. According to the analysis re-sults, it is ideal to apply the recommended fertilizer types to the soil in appropriate amounts. Since chickpea is a legume plant, it meets its own nitrogen needs by fixing the free nitrogen of the air with the help of nodules formed in its roots. Studies have shown that by fixing nitrogen in this way, 60% to 70% of the total nitrogen required by the chickpea plant can be met. For the formation of nodules, the seeds must be infected with appropriate strains of Rhizobium bacteria before sowing. However, in some soils, Rhizobium bacteria are present, even if their population is low. When planted in this type of soil, nitrogen-fixing nodules will form on the roots of the chick-pea plant, even if the seeds are not contaminated before planting. Therefore, bacterial inoculation is not mandatory before planting, nor is it necessary. If chickpeas have been grown in the same soil for many years and there is no nodule formation on the roots, bacterial inoculation can be done before planting. If the necessary soil analysis cannot be performed, as a general rule, it would be appropriate to give an average of 2-4 kg of nitrogen and 5-7 kg of phosphorus per decare. It would be appropriate to sprinkle all of the fertilizers to be applied on the soil and mix them with a rake before planting. For this purpose, 15 kg of 18-46-0 fertilizer, also known as diammonium phosphate fertilizer, can be applied per decare.

IRRIGATION: Since chickpea is a deep-rooted plant adapted to semi-arid and arid re-gions, it is drought resistant. Therefore, no irrigation is required. However, some stud-ies have shown that irrigation can be done in chickpea cultivation and that irrigation during the pod formation period will provide extra benefits in terms of productivity. Here, if irrigation is to be done, it should not be forgotten that there may be an in-crease in the humidity in the environment with irrigation, which will encourage the development of some fungal diseases.
WEED CONTROL: Row spacing is of great importance in weed control in chickpeas. In chickpea fields planted in narrow row spacings (25-35 cm), weeds are suppressed and their development stops as a result of the row spaces being covered by chick-peas in the early period. For this reason, weed problems are not seen in areas planted in narrow rows. In areas planted with wide row spacing (45-70 cm), developed or developing weeds are destroyed by mechanically hoeing the rows with a tractor. In chemical control of weeds, some weed killers (herbicides) can be used before or after planting. Some herbicides including trifluralin, methlachlor, ethalfluralin and ima-zethapyr can be used by mixing them into the soil before planting. Despite these pes-ticides being applied by mixing them with the soil, weed growth may be observed in later stages of development. In this case, after emergence, it is necessary to use drugs that can be applied to the green parts of the weeds.
HARVEST: In the plants that are at harvest time, the leaves and pods are completely yellowed. The moisture content of the grain is between 15-18%. This moisture content is ideal for machine harvesting. At moisture levels above or below this, the grain is mechanically damaged. Some varieties that are too short and are not suitable for ma-chine harvesting, or that are short because they have not fully developed, can be har-vested by hand plucking or harvesting by hand and threshing them in threshing ma-chines. Compared to some other plants, late harvesting does not cause any problems as there is no grain shedding problem or it is very insignificant. During very hot and dry periods, pods may also crack. For mechanized harvesting, it is possible to use air-suction harvesting-threshing machines specially designed for edible legumes, as well as normal combines and harvesters. In order for the harvested product to be stored under normal conditions, the moisture content of the grain should be at most 13-14%. While humidity levels above this value cause problems in storage, humidity levels below this value increase the storage period.