Scientific bulletin n° 329 - October 2009
uinoa has been
experiencing
worldwide commercial
success for around 15
years. Whether buoyed up
by fashion or a true food
revolution, this pseudocereal,
reputed for its exceptional
nutritional qualities, has
become a leading product
in the fair-trade and organic
food sector. Nevertheless,
it is still very much
symbolic of the Andean
highlands the Bolivian,
Peruvian and Ecuadorian
Altiplano where it originated.
It was the grain crop sacred
to the Incas and has been
grown on these high
plateaux for thousands of
years. Its genetic diversity
and hardiness make it
particularly well adapted to
the extreme environmental
stresses and climatic
hazards which prevail at
high altitude.
IRD scientists and their
Bolivian research partners
from the Universidad Mayor
de San Andrés in La Paz
are investigating the links
between that diversity and
adaptation. They recently
discovered the way quinoa
acquires part of its
remarkable tolerance, in
particular to frost, by means
of plant height heterogeneity
at field level. The taller plants
are effectively sacrificed,
succumbing to frost, but
they provide a protective
canopy above the shorter
stemmed ones. Losses
caused to the overall crop
are thereby limited,
enabling Andean farmers
to ensure at least a
minimum yield.
© IRD / Thierry Winkel
Q
Ancestral crop plant quinoa
finds organic fair-trade success
Survey under way near La Paz. Quinoa shows great diversity in height, colour and shape within the same plot.
Quinoa, Chenopodium quinoa, is rich in
proteins, essential minerals, lipids, antioxidants and vitamins. It also has a good aminoacid balance and is gluten-free. These
remarkable nutritional qualities have made
it a real success in the health food and
organic fair-trade sectors of the Northern
Hemisphere. Yet the important feature of
this grain-producing plant, not a grass but
a pseudocereal used in a similar way to
cereals as flour, flakes or popped seeds, is
its status as a traditional crop plant in the
Andean Altiplano regions. Quinoa was
domesticated in Peru and Bolivia about
7 000 years B.P. and still forms part of
the staple diet of the people living on
these high plateaux. It is adapted to arid
environments and poor, even saline
soils, and is also highly resistant to
cold, frost and wind. Research is under
way to find the origins of these exceptional
qualities. IRD scientists and their partners
have conducted laboratory investigations on
the plant’s responses to frost. Subsequent
field studies revealed another secret of its
resistance to night frost, a strong limiting
factor for agriculture in the Andean highlands.
Survival of the smallest
The factor which reduces frost damage to
quinoa is the high heterogeneity of plant
height at field level: the tallest plants, most
exposed to frost, form a canopy which
protects the smaller ones. The research
team demonstrated that this protective
effect depends on stem height, leaf surface
area (leaf area index) and the cloudiness
index. Air temperature and humidity play
only a minor role. The difference in height
between the plants results simultaneously
from the genetic diversity maintained by
farmers’ selection techniques and from the
heterogeneity of the terrain itself, which the
soil management practices, although partly
mechanized today, cannot make completely
uniform.
Frost causes visible damage because
the aerial parts of the plant freeze. It also
reduces carbon assimilation owing to photo-
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CONTACT:
Thierry WINKEL
researcher st the IRD
Tel: 33 (0)4 67 61 32 74
thierry.winkel@ird.fr
Unité Climat et fonctionnement
des agro-écosystèmes (CLIFA)
Address:
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1919, route de Mende
34293 Montpellier, France
REFERENCES:
Winkel T., Lhomme J.-P.,
Laura J. P. N., Alcon C.-M.,
Del Castillo C., Rocheteau A.
Assessing the protective effect
of vertically heterogeneous
canopies against radiative frost:
The case of quinoa on the
Andean Altiplano. Agricultural
and Forest Meteorology, 149 (10),
p. 1759-1768, 2009.
doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2009.06.005
Del Castillo C., Mahy G., Winkel T.
La quinoa en Bolivie : une
culture ancestrale devenue
culture de rente «bio-équitable».
Biotechnologie Agronomie
Société et Environnement, 12 (4),
p. 421-435, 2008.
Bois J.F., Winkel T., Lhomme J.P.,
Raffaillac J.P., Rocheteau A.
Response of some Andean
cultivars of quinoa
(Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) to
temperature: effects on
germination, phenology, growth
and freezing. European Journal of
Agronomy, 25 : 299-308. 2006.
doi:10.1016/j.eja.2006.06.007
synthesis inhibition ensuing over the
subsequent days. In the field, leaf energy
balance shows that the taller-growing
quinoa stands provide shelter from part of
the night sky, thereby limiting heat losses
from the smaller plants. These shorter
plants therefore benefit from a temperature
gain of as much as 2 °C, which significantly
increases their chance of surviving a period
of frost. However, the most promising seed
heads are sacrificed. The proportion of the
final production that the surviving smaller
plants represent remains to be determined.
This information will clarify their role in
the species’ survival strategy and the stabilization of farmers’ yields in the face of
climatic hazards.
Frost a factor in genetic diversity
Nocturnal radiative frost is a major stress
suffered by crop plants in the Andes. Highly
frequent at high altitudes during the cold
dry Southern winter, from May to October, it
also occurs during the growing season
which extends from October to April and
otherwise brings the more temperate and
humid conditions of the Southern summer.
To counter this climatic hazard, farmers in
the Andean highland plateaux developed
over the centuries some original agricultural practices and dozens of local landrace
varieties, resulting in a broad genetic diversity.
These developments created a great heterogeneity in plant growth and development,
occurring even within the same field.
A highly diversified plant
Quinoa is a species of the Chenopodiaceae
family, which also embraces spinach and
beet. It shows a wide genetic, and hence
morphological, diversity between varieties.
First, the colour is highly variable in
stems, leaves, seed pods and seeds:
green, orange, pink, red or purple, with or
without spots or patches. Crop stand height
ranges from 50 cm to 1.50 m depending on the
variety and also on the growing conditions.
The seeds, the main edible part of the
plant, can have one of three different
shapes: conical, cylindrical or ellipsoidal.
The plant can withstand up to three months
of drought at the beginning of the crop
cycle. The tolerance mechanism entails a
halt to growth, while the stem becomes
fibrous and the roots gather strength. As
soon as normal water input resumes, it
rapidly recovers its physiological activity.
This pseudocereal also has the capacity to
survive frosts reaching -4°C, or even -6 °C
in its juvenile stages. The leaves’ low water
content is a factor in freezing inhibition.
In Bolivia, 50 000 small-scale producers of
the Altiplano gain their livelihood from quinoa
cropping. On the national scale, production
amounts to an annual 23 000 tonnes (2008
figures), including about 20 % which go for
export. However, the “golden” seed could
become a victim of its own success. Intensification of production carries such risks
as loss of soil fertility, and erosion of genetic
diversity and it destabilizes ancestral cropping
practices. Taking up the work started by the
IRD and its partners, the Bolivian Ministry
of Rural Development has just launched
a national research programme on the
sustainability of quinoa production. These
research investigations show the importance of maintaining a wide diversity of
plants and varieties to ensure sustainable
production of quinoa crops.
Rédaction DIC – Gaëlle Courcoux
Translation - Nicholas FLAY
KEY WORDS:
© IRD / Thierry Winkel
Quinoa, Andes, frost
© IRD / R. Bosseno
Scientific bulletin n° 329 - october 2009
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The night frost will be less harsh under
the protection of taller plants.
Measuring quinoa leaf temperatures at the
Universidad San Andrés experimental station.
Did you know ?
“Quinoa” is the Spanish derivative of the word kinwa in the native American Quechua language.
Gaëlle Courcoux, coordinatrice
Délégation à l’information et à la communication
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