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Castille and even (1500 kg/ha) in W. Andalucfa, but in many other places the
yields are not so high because of both climatic and edaphic constraints.
The sowing date is generally in the second half of March; in Andalucia they
can be sown late in February or early in March, according to the climatic
conditions of the year. Harvesting is in June (Andalucia) to July (Castille).
Ascochyta Blight
Traditionallly, ascochyta blight ('rabia', 'quema', 'socarrina') was considered by
farmers to be the most serious problem when growing chickpeas. The disease
appeared suddenly after a short shower followed by sunshine, or after a late dew.
This fact explains why many farmers and even old agronomists thought that
blight was caused by the 'lens effect' of rain or dew drops. It also explains why
many farmers in the severely attacked regions walked through the plots with a
cord whose extremities were held in such a way by two men that the plant
canopies were shaken, throwing most of the water drops off the leaves.
There are no data on the distribution of the disease for the pre-war period;
comments by farmers suggest that it was endemic in all the regions cultivating
chickpeas. Farmers do not realize the existence of different degrees of the attack
so when they refer to the presence of 'rabia', they admit the complete loss of the
harvest. It was usual to plow in the chickpea plants as soon as the first symptoms
were noticed.
In the post-war period there are records of blight in all the regions (Table 2)
but it is not possible to speak about 'epidemics', perhaps.because the main area
growing chickpeas, that is, the west of Spain, is cut into three subregions by two
mountain chains. These subregions are characterized by different important
agronomical features as, for example, growth rates of the crop, harvesting periods,
daily temperature fluctuations, general climatic conditions, etc. (Table 3).
Also, chickpea fields never formed a continuous carpet as is the case with other
crops (wheat for example). Therefore the spread of the disease to a large area was
never easy.
During the last fifteen years no serious ascochyta blight attack has been
observed in the Cordoba province; in Seville province, good farmers growing
chickpeas with modern techniques are much more worried about fusarium wilt
than about ascochyta blight because they look for soils retaining enough water to
support greater yields and also because they use both seed and plant treatments
against ascochyta blight. In the Jaen province (more exactly in the 'Loma de
Ubeda', i.e., Ubeda highlands, a zone traditionally growing chickpeas) one farmer
has reported the existence of 'rabia'; in this case he was capable of separating
ascochyta blight and fusarium wilt.
In Salamanca province (and probably in the Old Castille region) ascochyta