Chickpea: Protein grown in Flanders (KIK-LOVE)

Chickpea is a crop that is currently not yet established in Flanders. With Kik-Love we want to highlight the cultivation of chickpea. Together with two pioneer farmers, we will evaluate the cultivation technique and look for local food companies to process the locally grown chickpea. Finally, we aim at identifying all necessary partners to have a complete chain from farm to fork. 

In Kik-Love we want to demonstrate the cultivation of chickpea at 2 pioneer farms (a conventional and an organic farm) and demonstrate this crop to early adopters. We want to bring together current initiatives around chickpeas, communicate about the crop and processing chain in order to further expand the group of farmers and work together on chain development by exchanging experience, success stories and approaches to possible challenges and problems. We organize meetings, visits, give practical advice based on our own experience, study the product quality and perform cost-benefit analyses. 

In the protein transition, food companies are looking for novel sources of plant proteins. Various crops, including chickpea, have great potential as high-protein crops. With KIK-Love we are developing an operational group consisting of all actors in the chickpea chain. After Kik-Love, new local partnerships should have been formed resulting in the local, profitable production of plant protein through chickpeas.