• Chickpeas
• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
• Disease Management

Objective

To determine the feasibility of using an intercrop of chickpea and flax to increase the area suitable for chickpea production and decrease disease severity in chickpea.

Outcome

The chickpea-flax intercrop has the potential to be successful. The crops can be seeded in early May, preferably at different depths. Flax has a relatively low nitrogen (N) fertility requirement and is efficient at using soil N due to associations with beneficial mycorrhizae. Chickpea is a N fixer and is also associated with beneficial mycorrhizae. Flax tends to consume soil moisture placing stress on the chickpea that may encourage seed set. All the intercropping treatments decreased the disease incidence in the chickpea. Maturity was decreased by the intercropping treatments. This site-year of research indicates that we can alter the disease incidence, maturity and quality of the chickpea at the cost of grain yield.

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