TWO new chick pea varieties will be commercially available for planting in southeast Australia this year.
AWB Seeds has seed of the desi chick pea PBA slasher available for the first time.
And Australian Agricultural Crop Technology is selling seed of the small kabuli type, genesis 079, through satellite groups of farmers.
Growers may opt for the existing array of other chick-pea varieties available or pulse types on the market as a break crop.
But Pulse Australia is warning growers to check the viability of their seed if they are retaining grain from the previous season's crop.
Pulse Australia's Wayne Hawthorne said seed quality had become a serious issue, irrespective of the variety used.
Mr Hawthorne said quality concerns that had emerged in the market were all linked back to agronomic issues.
"It is important that farmers know their seed quality this year, especially the germination percentage," he said.
"And for lentils, chick peas and lupins, a virus test is particularly important."
AWB Seeds national manager Simon Crane said growers in the Wimmera and Mallee might be eyeing higher-priced crops, such as chick peas, given the low prices for cereals and recent heavy rain.
"Desi chick peas are providing a pretty solid $400 a tonne," Mr Crane said.
AWB Seeds' new desi chick pea, PBA slasher, is well suited to Victorian, southern NSW, South Australian and West Australian growing regions.
It has high resistance to the fungal disease ascochyta blight.
AWB Seeds said PBA slasher was a mid-flowering and mid-maturity variety for the whole and split seed markets.
It had a tan-brown seed coat and excellent milling quality.
Its susceptibility to botrytis grey mould was similar to the genesis varieties.
Mr Crane said AWB fast-tracked the release of PBA slasher so that seed was available this season.
But he said the heat wave last November meant the company only ended up with a third of the seed it expected from bulk-up crops spread from Wagga Wagga to South Australia.
Of about 170 tonnes of seed available, some would go back into seed production this year, leaving less than 100 tonnes on offer to growers, he said.
Mr Crane said the shortage of seed might result in southern NSW growers opting for the northern variety, PBA hat trick.
While PBA hat trick had excellent ascochyta blight resistance in northern Australia, he said it might slip a bit if grown as far south as Wagga Wagga.
Victorian pulse growers may show big interest in genesis 079 chick pea due to its strong showing in the national variety trials.
It was the top-yielding kabuli variety across five trial sites in Victoria.
AACT chief executive officer Daryl Young said genesis 079 performed particularly well in drier regions, sometimes yielding as much as 20-30 per cent more than other varieties.
It had good resistance to ascochyta blight and was only likely to require fungicide sprays during grain podding.
AACT said it had the same level of resistance to ascochyta blight as genesis 090.
