5-14 IAT Chickpeas

  A discussion about chickpeas in the Palouse.

 I had a wonderful discussion with Todd Scholz who is a researcher at the Idaho Pea and Lentil Commission. “I have a neighbor who’s a farmer, I live in the Palouse and he told me that farming was so tough and depressing I was going to step out of it and I started raising chickpeas and he said my excitement is back, I enjoy it, I am making money and it has been the answer. That is not abnormal. So chickpeas are really the thing here in Idaho and Washington. The other part is that I am the director of research so the other part of the story is how research helps out agriculture because in the 80s, chickpeas first arrived here in the Palouse and they first started experimenting with them. Now the farmers are able to raise them here in this region very well, they are shorter season so  while most farmers plant wheat, most of the  harvest is done by the end of August and chickpeas are a September harvest crop. So the season is still longer than wheat but it fits well enough that we can manage to harvest them in September. They are much more productive than they were when they first started and the prices are very generous.”