Once considered an orphan crop, the high-Andes grain “quinoa” has emerged from insignificance thanks to its well-deserved reputation for high nutritional value. Yet, this proteinpacked grain also has a reputation for low productivity – which is not surprising, considering it often grows in harsh climates and terrains at elevations of several thousand metres. However, now, with results that have emerged from a Joint FAO/IAEA Division study that combines three different technologies, quinoa productivity can almost triple.
Although it was domesticated five millennia ago, quinoa is one of those foods that was practically unknown outside of Peruvian highlands until very recently when nutrition-conscious consumers learned of its richness in proteins, amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. Once providing sustenance to the Inca civilization that flourished there in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, it was chosen as a food for NASA astronauts on space journeys in the twentieth century, and the United Nations declared 2013 the Year of Quinoa.
While all of this recognition is certainly positive, today’s quinoa production also faces a harsh reality in terms of the frequent droughts, soil salinity, frost, hail, wind, flooding and abiotic stress present in the Peruvian Andes that add up to reduce its productivity. Because of both increased consumer demand and the importance of quinoa in the local diets, increasing production and yield stability have been identified as important challenges in addressing food security concerns across the Andean region.
In responding to this need, the Joint FAO/IAEA Division, working with Programa de Cereals y Granos Nativos, Universidad Nacional Agraria de LaMolina, Lima, Peru, developed an approach that incorporates three technologies: mutation breeding, isotope tracing and water control using a water-absorbing polymer. The study evaluated 63 improved quinoa lines in farmers’ fields, specifically looking for their response to water and fertilizer. It also used nitrogen-15 stable isotope
tracers to evaluate the optimum dose of nitrogen fertilizer needed to increase quinoa yields. And finally, it introduced the water-absorbing polymer, a foam product placed below the soil surface to keep water from running off the steep fields. The material soaks up rainwater, reserving it for the plant and, when the nitrogen fertilizer is applied, the uptake can be higher and, in turn, so the yield.
