Malawi officially releases its first improved chickpea and finger millet varieties

High-yielding chickpea and finger millet varieties with yield potential of up to 3 tons per hectare had their first-ever official release in Malawi. The release aligns well with the government’s crop diversification agenda for food and income security and the funding agency Irish Aid’s goal of increasing the resilience of poor households to economic, social and environmental shocks.

The three chickpea and three finger millet varieties are the culmination of five years of on-station and on-farm evaluations for adaptability, yield, nutrition, climate resilience and utilization facilitated by the Malawi Seed Industry Development Project (MSIDP). These varieties bred by the ICRISAT breeding program in Kenya were tested for adaptability in Malawi.