Chickpe Chickpea Essay

Food crops have occupied an important place in human nutrition as they remain the major sources of calories and protein for a large population in the world, particularly in developing countries. For economic and social reasons, many millions of people in Asia and African countries depend on vegetable products of cereals and legumes sources. According to the FAO available data, about 80% of the protein consumed by the humans in developing countries is supplied by the plants. Legumes are recognized as a major source of dietary protein and energy in the developing countries where cost of animal protein is very expensive. Out of many species of legume in plant kingdom only very few are consumed as food namely cowpea, groundnut, bambara groundnut, soybean, pigeon pea, guinea pea, African yam bean, ground bean, and chickpea (Abdel Moneimet al., 2013; Dialokeet al., 2014).
It is the second-most important pulse crop in the world (after dry bean), covering 15% (10.2 million ha) of the area dedicated to pulse cultivation and accounting for 14% (7.9 million tons) of pulse production worldwide (Aharonet al., 2012; FAO, 2012). Chickpea cultivars are broadly divided into two groups, desi and kabuli. Kabuli seeds are large, light colored beans, characterized by larger size, ram-head shape, low fiber content and have a 100-seed weight of 28 to 70 g. In the Mediterranean countries, chickpeas (Kabuli type mostly) is considered a very important legume crop. It is utilized in many forms, such as canned, roasted, boiled, and puffed. Also it is used in meal preparation such as Falafel and Homos biteiheneh, these two meals are very popular and consumed on daily basis (Singh et al., 1991; Nizakatet al.,