Chickpea (Cicer arietinum)

Cicer arietinum, commonly called the chickpea and also known as gram, Bengal gram, chana, garbanzo or Egyptian pea, is an annual legume of the family Fabaceae cultivated for its edible, protein-rich seeds. The plant grows twenty to fifty centimeters tall with delicate, feathery foliage and white flowers veined in blue, violet or pink, producing pods that each hold two or three seeds. It ranks among the earliest cultivated legumes, domesticated roughly ten thousand years ago alongside wheat, barley, peas and lentils during the First Agricultural Revolution, with early archaeological evidence found in Syria. Two principal types are grown today, the Desi type common across South Asia and Ethiopia and the Kabuli type prevalent in the Mediterranean and Middle East, where the seed is central to hummus and falafel, while in India it is widely used in salads, soups, stews and curries; India alone accounted for seventy five percent of global production in 2023.