Hot summer boosts Swiss chickpea harvest, but farming remains niche

A hot and dry summer has produced a good chickpea harvest in Switzerland, but domestic cultivation remains difficult because the crop has no border protection and there is little processing infrastructure, SRF reported.

Fabian Vollenweider, a farmer at the Lindenhof farm in Benzenschwil in the canton of Aargau, began growing chickpeas last year after asking whether foods they enjoyed eating could also be produced locally.

The first trial took place during a wet summer, which chickpeas do not tolerate well. Even so, Vollenweider considered the harvest satisfactory, although many of the peas had to be sorted out.

Chickpeas are legumes and are particularly sensitive to moisture, according to David Brugger, head of crop production at the Swiss Farmers’ Union. Swiss cultivation is also challenging because chickpeas are not covered by comparable border protection and there are few businesses that process them.

At the Lindenhof, the chickpeas are therefore processed on the farm. Food technologist Andreas Hediger oversees production of dried and cooked chickpeas as well as hummus. This year, four hectares produced six tonnes of chickpeas, which yielded about 24 tonnes of hummus after soaking and adding the other ingredients.

Sales have been strong. The farm grew three times as many chickpeas this year because it sold the entire previous harvest. The hummus is available at the farm shop and at several retailers.

Agroscope, the federal centre for agricultural research, sees potential in chickpeas because they are drought-resistant. However, the plant is poorly adapted to the Central European climate and is highly sensitive to frost.

Several years of trials at Plantahof in Landquart in the canton of Graubünden tested different varieties and sowing dates. The trials were abandoned four years ago because yields were too low and costs too high.

The Lindenhof operators nevertheless plan to expand their chickpea acreage in the future.