Do you think that quinoa will be easy to grow and to commercialize in marginal areas?
Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is an ancient Andean crop that produces edible seeds and leaves. Quinoa’s tolerance to salinity and other types of abiotic stresses provides it with high potential in a world where scarcity of water and increased soil
salinization are important causes of crop failures. Due to its traditionally broad cultivation area (from Colombia to southern Chile), there is a wide range of quinoa cultivars adapted to specific conditions displaying a broad genetic variability in stress
tolerance. In addition, being practically unique as a halophytic seed-producing crop with amazing nutritional properties, it is ideal as a model species for investigating morphological, cellular, physiological, and bio-molecular mechanisms of salinity
tolerance.
Quinoa is a facultative halophyte. many research centers are working to improve the salinity tolerant potential of Quinoa.
What do you think about its potential markets. is it willing to be successfully marketed?
Principally it is a crop of Latin America where it is a staple food of peoples and have good market. Quinoa is naturally gluten-free and contains iron, B-vitamins, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, vitamin E and fiber. It is one of only a few plant foods that are considered a complete protein and comprised of all pernine essential amino acids. Quinoa also has a high protein to carbohydrate ratio when compared to other grain products. It was proposed by NASA to be an ideal food for long duration space flights. When peoples will come to know about its nutritional quality its market will be boosted.
Dear Aziz,
You could find most of the recent informations on quinoa tolerance to salinity in this Book Chapter co-published by FAO and Cirad:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274376799_Tolerance_to_saline_conditions
Cultivation in salt affected soils and rehabilitation of lands are two separated domains. You need to take each of them in account separately to well understand the constraints.
Yes, it is possible to find specific landraces of varieties of quinoa able to grow on salt affected soils, and sometimes under incredible high concentrations. An analysis of the kind of salinity is often necessary to orient quinoa cultivation. It is very important because of other components of soil degradation could be found and could be also fixed by quinoa. To maintain a good nutritional content for quinoa from degraded soils, quinoa needs to be exempt of heavy metals for example...
For rehabilitation, it is really another aspect considering more ability for other species after quinoa cultivation in order to reimplement a diversified cropping system. Soil fertility restoration and soil purification or cleaning are the two main factors to be considered here.
Kind regards,
Didier
Chapter Tolerance to saline conditions
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