It is not believed it is a new strain of disease.

Pulse industry leaders are keen to quickly decipher what is causing the disease, with many growers still regarding chickpeas as a risky crop due to memories of crop failure due to ascochyta blight in the late 1990s.

Breeders have successfully developed varieties with a strong disease resistance profile to most major diseases and will be watching with interest to see what is causing the crop strain.

The Victorian Department of Primary Industries is busy investigating what is causing the issue, and has several potential leads which it is pursuing.

Samples of infected crops have been analysed and the pathology department is waiting for results.

DPI’s senior plant pathologist Grant Hollaway said there had been recent reports of large areas of diseased chickpea crops in the Mallee a few weeks back, followed by similar reports a couple of weeks later through the Wimmera, as crops reached a similar developmental stage.

Dr Hollaway said the disease could either be a root disease, viral condition, or a result of the wetter-than-average conditions through the growing season.

“This season had been one of the wettest in chickpea growing areas for a number of years and this is likely to have contributed to the problem," he said.

Mallee agronomist Matt Witney, Dodgshun Medlin, Swan Hill, confirmed there had been a number of reports of yellowing of chickpeas in Mallee crops.

“We have sent the samples away, but from what I have seen I would lean towards it being some sort of a plant virus, though obviously we’ll wait and find out exactly what has been causing it," he said.