World Pulses Day 2026

Happy World Pulse day! We are reaching the end of the LEG-ITA project which directly contributes to the spread of pulses in Italy. The LEG-ITA project focused on chickpea, one of the first cultivated pulses, drought-resistant and a fundamental component of sustainable cropping systems. We studied different chickpea varieties to study the suitability of this crop in two pedo-climatic areas: in Tuscany, where this crop is already present; and in Friuli Venezia Giulia, where the crop has been recently introduced. We also tested two management practices related to the yield stability of chickpea: different sowing dates and intercropping with bread wheat. In the two years of field trials we gained a lot of experience on this pulse and helped some farmers discover the benefits of chickpea, but there’s lots more to do to increase its cultivation! The LEG-ITA project highlights the benefit of an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach which allowed us to collect double the data. The field work also supported modelling, which allows to explore future scenarios in a context of climate change. During these two years we brought our experiences from LEG-ITA in the farms and in the main Italian and European agricultural conferences.