IN Brief:
- More than 10,000 acres are planned for NuCicer’s chickpea variety in 2026.
- Stricks Ag will lead production, primary processing, and market development.
- The partnership connects plant breeding directly with ingredient-scale commercial supply.
NuCicer and Stricks Ag are moving high-protein chickpeas into larger-scale commercial production, with the two companies planning to deploy more than 10,000 acres of NuCicer’s variety during the 2026 growing season.
Under the arrangement, Stricks Ag will take the lead on production, primary processing, and commercial market development through its grower network and processing facilities. That gives the programme a fuller chain than many crop-innovation announcements manage, extending from breeding through to ingredient supply rather than stopping at field trials or limited launch volumes.
NuCicer has built its platform around natural diversity and predictive breeding, and says its chickpeas can deliver substantially higher protein than conventional varieties while also offering better functionality for food applications. On its own site, the company positions the crop for whole-bean formats, functional flours, and protein powders, while Stricks describes itself as a processor and logistics provider supplying pulses from Montana to food manufacturers worldwide.
The commercial significance lies in the attempt to lock agronomy, acreage, cleaning, sorting, export, and customer development together at an early stage. That reduces the usual gap between promising crop genetics and dependable industrial ingredient availability, which is often where alternative protein supply chains slow down.
If the acreage converts as planned, the partnership will give food manufacturers a clearer route into chickpea-based protein systems that are higher in native protein and less dependent on heavier processing steps to hit formulation targets.
