🌾 Growing Chickpeas in Upstate New York: 2025 Field Results, New Funding, and Regional Momentum

As interest in plant-based ingredients accelerates nationwide, Upstate New York is emerging as a surprising testbed for a crop not traditionally associated with the Northeast: chickpeas. What began as small experimental plantings has evolved into a multi-year effort involving farmers, researchers, food processors, and economic development partners across the region.

This year’s harvest offers new insights—and thanks to new grant funding—sets the stage for the most comprehensive trials yet.

🌱 Harvesting Through a Challenging Season

Despite persistent rain and limited dryer availability, this fall’s chickpea trial wrapped up with one of the heaviest yields the team has seen. After swathing the plants and waiting for a break in the weather, chickpeas were dried manually—spread thinly across the shop floor, warmed, and stirred daily.

Organic grower Klaas Martens shared valuable reflections on the season and the crop’s long-term potential. As he explained: “We have had small plots of chickpeas now in 7 different years. They entirely failed to make seeds in 3 of those years, set a modest amount of seed but died from aschochyta in one year, and produced seed but not a high yield in two more. This year they were weed free and had a heavy crop.”

His experience underscores both the variability of chickpea production in Northeastern conditions and the promise of the right combinations of seed, timing, and management.

🫘 Two Types, Two Markets

This season’s trial focused on two categories of chickpeas, each with distinct market pathways.

1. Green Desi-Type (Immature Myles)

These chickpeas are harvested young and eaten as a vegetable, especially in South Asian cuisine. Klaas noted they can likely be harvested with standard snap bean equipment and processed using existing IQF vegetable lines—a promising opportunity as Indian cuisine gains popularity in the U.S.

2. Orion Kabuli-Type (Mature)

These are the chickpeas most consumers recognize as the base for:

• hummus

• canned chickpeas

• dried bagged beans

Once fully dried and cleaned, they’re expected to fit easily into the region’s existing dry bean market.

🌾 Research Questions Driving the Next Phase

Years of small-plot experimentation reveal two major questions:

1. Consistency of seed set — Weather, variety selection, and disease pressure have all influenced yield reliability.

2. Optimal planting date — This year’s best crop came from a later planting date than recommended by national experts, suggesting a need for focused planting-timing trials.

These insights align with the broader curiosity around chickpea viability highlighted in the 2022 Civil Eats article (Farmers Trial Climate-Friendly Chickpeas in Upstate New York | Civil Eats), which profiled New York’s early trials, farmer experiences, and emerging industry interest in local chickpea supply.

🌟 Funding Spotlight: NYFVI Invests in New York Chickpea Trials

A major milestone for the project came in 2024, when SCOPED secured a $92,870.52 grant from the New York Farm Viability Institute (NYFVI)—a program funded by the New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets—to support expanded chickpea and lupini trials across 2024–2025. (Contract: NYFVI Project No. FVI ’22 017)

The grant—“Providing New York Farmers with a diversified revenue stream through additional Chickpea and Lupini trials to determine optimum growing conditions and yields”—funds:

• multi-site variety trials

• comparisons of seed types, planting dates, and soil treatments

• harvesting method evaluations for fresh and dried chickpeas

• monthly grower meetings and field inspections

• lab testing, soil analysis, and seed treatment

• statewide outreach through CCE, ag conferences, and partner networks

• a final report for New York’s farming community

The project runs from April 1, 2024 through December 31, 2025, with Judy McKinney Cherry serving as Principal Investigator and a team of co-leaders from Cornell, CCE, and regional farms guiding the work. This investment allows New York farmers and researchers to test chickpeas at a level of consistency and scale that has never been attempted in the state.

🚀 Parallel Momentum in Regional Food Innovation

While not directly linked to the field trials, the region is also seeing exciting innovation in chickpea-based food products. Mycsology Foods (Mycs Foods by Mycsology) recently announced new pilots, product launches, and a NASA-funded research initiative for their fermented chickpea ingredients. Though separate efforts, these activities highlight rising interest in chickpeas across the broader food system.

📈 What This Means for the Region

With stronger data, better tools, and dedicated funding, New York is closer than ever to determining whether chickpeas can become a stable part of the Northeast farm economy. Early indicators—and enthusiasm from regional food companies—suggest real potential.

New York farmers are eager for new rotation crops. Food manufacturers want local supply. Researchers are ready to answer the open questions. And thanks to new funding, SCOPED and its partners now have the resources to gather the data needed to bridge those opportunities. 2026–2027 may be the years that finally unlock chickpeas as a viable New York crop.