Chickpea remarkably predominates among other pulse crops in terms of both area and production. The year 2009-10 marked significant increase in area under chickpea (8.56 million ha) which is highest in last 10 years. Similarly, the chickpea production (7.35 million tonnes) also surpassed last 50 years record with highest productivity (858 kg/ha) ever recorded in the history of India. The area under chickpea has increased from 6.45 million ha in 1992-93 to 8.56 million ha in 2009-10.

Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are the major chickpea producing states sharing over 95% area. During last five decades chickpea has registered significant increase in production (3.53 average annual growth rate for 1950-2009), which is primarily due to introduction of high yielding and disease (s) resistant varieties and adoption off improved production technologies.The north Indian states have lost more than 29% chickpea area which has caused about 28% reduction in production during 1975 to 1990. This reduction was because of increase in irrigation facilities and non-availability of input responsive varieties of chickpea. This loss was compensated by increase in area (17%), production (46%) and productivity (24%) in central India (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat) during the same period. In the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, there was significant increase in area, production and productivity of chickpea. In Andhra Pradesh, the area under chickpea has increased from 71,000 ha in 1991-93 to 517,000 ha in 2006-08 and productivity from 621 kg/ha to 1397 kg/ha, resulting in 6 times increase in production. In Maharashtra, the area increased from 566,000 ha in 1991-93 to 1.24 million ha in 2006-08 and the production from 2,88,000 to 9,59,000 tones in the same period.