A favourable summer, building up soil moisture banks, solid price opportunities and a desire to mix up rotations that have been heavy on cereals in recent years has created strong demand for chickpea seed this year.
Industry observers are predicting it will likely be the biggest chickpea plant since at least 2017-18 and may even challenge the bumper 2016-17 season, with availability of suitable seed likely to be one of the major constraints.
Matthew Madden, Grain Producers Australian northern director, said there were expectations of a big plant in his local region in northern NSW.
"Certainly the way things are shaping up, with good subsoil moisture, people are planning to put in more chickpeas than the last few years, when it has either been too dry or too wet," Mr Madden said.
"The pricing signals are also good at this stage, but we realise that a lot can change during the course of the year, however at this stage people are being proactive and going out and looking for seed."
Peter Wilson, chair of the Grains Australia pulse council, said there were reasons to be upbeat about chickpea prospects, but cautioned there was still a lot to play out in terms of markets and pricing.
"We've heard there is a smaller Indian crop and there is even talk of India removing tariffs on Australian chickpeas, which would be wonderful, but that is unlikely to happen in the immediate future," he said.
"The Indian government is now in caretaker mode in the lead-up to the election and it is unlikely that the new government will get onto addressing chickpea tariffs straight away so we're telling pulse growers here not to expect anything too soon."
"The smaller Indian crop will be a help in terms of helping Australia find more market share into other markets, such as Bangladesh or Pakistan, but if the Australian crop is a reasonably big one, which is certainly a possibility based on current sentiment, then that could make it harder to find markets for the product at the high values on offer presently."
"There's certainly a good story for chickpeas at present, which hasn't necessarily been the case at planting for a few years, but as always, farmers need to remember that the price on offer at sowing is not necessarily what they will see when they harvest."
A poorer Indian crop is likely to see Indian product normally sent for export redirected back into the domestic market, meaning the importers will look to other product, potentially from Australia.
However, Mr Wilson cautioned that India was not about to run out of chickpeas overnight.
"This is something that will potentially develop during the year, but Indian authorities have a good idea of supply and demand, so it will emerge gradually if stocks continue to fall."
Mr Wilson said Queensland had seen good falls over the past week which would push further demand for chickpea seed.
"There should be a fairly large plant across Queensland with many key growing regions enjoying a good start to the calendar year rainfall wise."
Mr Madden said growers were looking to lock in an opportunity for a broadleaf winter crop phase after a focus on wheat in recent years.
"Obviously we have options to plant summer crops as well to help rotationally but after the plant had dropped right away last year I'd expect people would be looking to get chickpeas in for rotational reasons."
Mr Wilson said chickpea gross margins could be strong this year, but said farmers should not be tempted by high prices at sowing time.
"Whatever the crop, planting a certain option just because the price is sky-high in April is not the way to go, however where there is a spot in the rotation to plant more chickpeas I think there will be some good opportunities, especially for those who are willing to be patient in looking for the best price."
"The Australian production sector has proved its ability to store chickpeas at top quality for a significant amount of time and that allows a longer window to try and access higher prices."