Читать книгу Quinoa - Atul Bhargava - Страница 48

Quinoa has been field tested in Kenya and the initial results indicate a high seed yield, comparable to that in the Andean region (Mujica et al., 2001). All the quinoa cultivars matured in the Kenyan conditions, although the growth period was shorter (65–98 days). In Kenya, seed yields up to 9 t/ha and biomass yields up to 15 t/ha have been obtained. The late cultivars from Colombia and the inter-Andean valleys gave the highest yield. This is important for Kenya, since it is a primary rural economy relying heavily on the agricultural sector for economic growth. Increased crop diversification is important for improving food security, and quinoa can be considered a promising option for introduction to Kenya and other African countries having similar agroclimatic conditions (Jacobsen, 2003).

A partnership between the Danish Company Eghøjgaard and the Egyptian Natural Oil Company (NATOIL) was formed in 2007 that aimed to develop quinoa in Egypt. The requirements of temperate temperatures during flowering, short day-length to flower and produce seeds for most genotypes mean that quinoa is suitable for the Egyptian winter climate. Adaptation and selection work is underway through a DANIDA-supported project to select the best genotype with respect to length of growing period, plant height, flowering time quality and many other characters. Other properties of quinoa for its successful development in Egypt are its drought resistance, high water use efficiency, good growth in poor soils and salt tolerance. In Ismalia, the salinity in the irrigation water is 3000 ppm, which would make most other crops suffer severely. In Egypt, the fertile farmland area along the Nile and in the delta is under pressure from infrastructure and urban development. Thus new farmland is often poor reclaimed desert land with salinity problems. Quinoa can therefore play a key role in food production in reclaimed desert land. Quinoa was put in formal field trials in the Sinai Peninsula, with 13 varieties and strains being tested in the deserts of South Sinai governorate (near Nuwaiba city) (Shams, 2011) and its introduction in the desert lands proved to be a success.