Balegreen Spice & Grain Development plc. CHICKPEA PRODUCTION AND ITS CHALLENGES Million Bogale General Manager CHICKPEA PRODUCTION AND ITS CHALLENGES Million Bogale General Manager AGRA-SSTP, ILRI-N2Africa and MBI Scaling Chickpea Technologies Project Launch and Planning Workshop 15 April, 2015, ILRI Campus Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Balegreen Mechanized Chickpea Farming Major Activities Harvesting Field day Challenges Poor Marketing

Balegreen Mechanized Chickpea Farming

Challenges of chickpea production 1.Harvesting There was no trend of chickpea harvesting with mechanized technologies like combiner harvester in Ethiopia; Balegreen is the first, forefronter and model for chickpea harvesting with mechanized technologies, to change the situation still challenge for chickpea producers. The challenge we had faced was unavailability of the customized combine harvester. 1.Harvesting There was no trend of chickpea harvesting with mechanized technologies like combiner harvester in Ethiopia; Balegreen is the first, forefronter and model for chickpea harvesting with mechanized technologies, to change the situation still challenge for chickpea producers. The challenge we had faced was unavailability of the customized combine harvester.

Challenges cont…. 2. Marketing Balegreen has two products of chickpea namely, Arerti & Kabuli. Although, relatively Arerti variety is more productive 30 Qtl/Ha than ACOS Dube (Kabuli variety) it has no market because of its size. Where as ACOS Dube is less productive 15 quintals/Ha and also its buyers are more interested on a grain size which is approximately ≥ 9.5mm which is 25 % of the total production the rest 75% is has no market. 2. Marketing Balegreen has two products of chickpea namely, Arerti & Kabuli. Although, relatively Arerti variety is more productive 30 Qtl/Ha than ACOS Dube (Kabuli variety) it has no market because of its size. Where as ACOS Dube is less productive 15 quintals/Ha and also its buyers are more interested on a grain size which is approximately ≥ 9.5mm which is 25 % of the total production the rest 75% is has no market.

Solution for marketing Our recommendation for this kind of market problem is food processing. We are interested to establish food processing facility in joint venture with Europe/American based companies, which is using the local level produced chickpea, process and export for Middle East & Africa market. Our recommendation for this kind of market problem is food processing. We are interested to establish food processing facility in joint venture with Europe/American based companies, which is using the local level produced chickpea, process and export for Middle East & Africa market.