Divisi
How to grow Chickpea
Cicer arietinum · Fabaceae
Photo: Swathi Sridharan (ICRISAT) · CC BY-SA 2.0
Chickpea is a knee-high, branching legume grown for its round, protein-rich seeds — the pea behind roasted snacks, stews and hummus. It comes in two kinds: desi, with small, dark, tough seeds that shrug off heat and dry weather, and kabuli, with big, cream-coloured seeds that fetch a higher price but want kinder conditions. Like other legumes it makes its own nitrogen from the air, through helpful germs that live in little lumps on its roots, so it barely needs fertiliser — just a little phosphorus. It has one special trick: you sow it as the rains end, and it lives off the water stored deep in the soil, sending roots more than a metre down to reach it. That is why it hates wet feet — in soggy ground the roots simply rot.
AlixSaz · CC BY-SA 4.0 
- Days to maturity
- 90–150 days
- Row spacing
- 30 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 10 cm
- Sowing depth
- 5–12 cm
These are general figures for the crop, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. The right choice for your field depends on your soil, rainfall and the yield you are aiming for.
Will chickpea actually do well on your land? Check your field against every crop in the catalogue — free, no signup. Run the free crop check →
Other names for Chickpea
ሽምብራ (shimbra) · chickpea · garbanzo · Bengal gram · pois chiche · grão-de-bico · dengu
Working in buckets, bags or paces? The farming glossary turns the measures growers actually use into kilograms and hectares — what a 20 litre bucket of each crop really weighs, and how to size a field by walking it — alongside the Shona, Swahili, Ndebele and Yoruba words used in the field. Open the glossary →
Growing chickpea, stage by stage
Your chickpea season, step by step — sow deep into the leftover moisture as the rains end, keep the field dry and weed-free, beat the pod borer through flowering and podding, then dry the seed rock-hard and seal it away from weevils.
- Get ready and time it for the leftover moisture
- Sow deep and get a full stand
- The bush builds — weed early, watch for disease
- Flowering — guard against heat and the pod borer
- Filling the pods — peak pod-borer and dry-root-rot
- Harvest on time, thresh gently
- Dry it hard, seal it against weevils
14 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for chickpea — what to do, when to do it and why it matters — with the amounts worked out for your own field, reminders as each one falls due, and warnings before extreme weather.
Pests and diseases that attack chickpea
3 more threats tracked in the app
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your chickpea right now, when to walk the field looking for it, and what to do the moment you find it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does chickpea take to grow?
Chickpea takes about 90–150 days from sowing to maturity, though the exact length varies with variety, temperature and how the season runs.
What spacing should I use for chickpea?
Space chickpea rows about 30 cm apart, with roughly 10 cm between plants within the row.
How deep should chickpea be planted?
Sow chickpea at about 5–12 cm deep. Shallower risks drying out; deeper wastes seed energy before the shoot reaches light.
What pests and diseases attack chickpea?
The ones covered in this guide are Ascochyta blight, Bollworm complex, Charcoal rot. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
Grow chickpea with a plan, not a guess
Divisi turns this guide into a dated plan for your own field — what to do each week, reminders as tasks fall due, and warnings before extreme weather. Free for farmers, works offline.
Or check your field first