Every year crops worth hundreds of millions of dollars are lost, and thousands of farmers are driven toward economic despondency, because of drought. Climate change is worsening the threat of reduced rainfall in many drought-prone regions. This leaves agricultural scientists faced with the challenge of developing varieties that can withstand drought and safeguard the livelihood of farmers.

At the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), researchers working with scientists from the national agricultural research system of Turkey have successfully developed a new variety of chickpea, Gokce, that can survive drought. It also has moderate tolerance to Ascochyta blight, a disease that devastates chickpea crops.

Farmers harvesting Gokce, a drought-tolerant variety of kabuli chickpea, in Yozgat province of Central Anatolia region in Turkey. The region has been hit by a severe drought causing failure of crops in 2007.

Gokce has proved itself by surviving the current drought in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey and producing an impressive yield under severely adverse weather conditions in areas where wheat, barley and other crops have failed. Turkish newspapers have quoted the Turkish Union of Agricultural Chambers as estimating losses from the drought this season to be about 5 billion Turkish lira, or US$4 billion. The government has allocated 514 million lira ($411 million) to compensate farmers.

Meanwhile, farmers cultivating Gokce in Central Anatolia expect to harvest around 1.5 tons per hectare.

"Work on developing this variety began in 1984-85 as part of an international yield trial," says Dr. R.S. Malhotra, senior chickpea breeder at ICARDA. "Gokce was identified for field trials in Turkey in 1991."

It was initially tested at the Central Research Institute's research farm at Haymana, near Ankara, by Dr. Ismail Kusmenoglu and his team members. Subsequently, in 1992 and 1993, it was tested in regional yield trials at five contrasting locations (Corum, Haymana, Karaman, Konya and Yozgat). In 1997, the National Variety Registration and Release Committee of Turkey released it for commercial production.

Based on the success of the field trials, the Exporters' Union Seed and Research Company (ITAS by its Turkish acronym), a nonprofit organization set up by Turkish agricultural exporters, introduced Gokce into the country in 1997. "The results of field trials were excellent, and we got the variety registered," recalls Kusmenoglu, who is now general manager of ITAS.

ITAS initiated its Integrated Technology Transfer Project in 1997 and planted 1,400 kilograms (kg) of foundation seed at Konya in Central Anatolia in the spring of 1998. The seed was then distributed to growers in 2000. Since then, 100-150 tons of certified seed has been provided to farmers for cultivation.

As Gokce cultivation expanded, the average yield of chickpea increased significantly from 861 kg per hectare in 2000 to 1,071 kg per hectare in 2006. Chickpea is now grown on some 600,000 hectares in Turkey, of which nearly two-thirds are in Central Anatolia.

This year Gokce was planted on almost 85% of the chickpea production area at Gaziantep and Adiyaman in Southeast Anatolia and at Ankara, Eskisehir, Konya, Karaman, Isparta, Corum, Kirsehir, Yozgat and Sivas in Central Anatolia.

Turkey is one of the world's largest exporters of kabuli chickpea, and Turkish farmers have quickly adopted Gokce because of its large seed size, drought tolerance and resistance to Ascochyta blight.

For more information from ICARDA, e-mail s.varma@cgiar.org.