Agro-morphological and biochemical responses of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd. var: ICBA-Q5) to organic amendments under various salinity conditions.

In the Sahara Desert, due to drought and salinity and poor soil fertility, very limited crop choice is available for the farmers to grow crops. Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) has shown promising under such conditions in the South of Morocco, a true representative site of Sahara Desert. Soil organic amendments have the potential to minimize negative effects of soil salinity and improve crop production. Thus, this study aimed to elucidate the impact of nine organic amendments on quinoa (var. ICBA-Q5) growth, productivity, and biochemical parameters under saline irrigation water application (4, 12, and 20 dS·m-1). Results of the experiment indicate a significant effect of organic amendments on major agro-morphological and productivity parameters. Biomass and seed yield tends to decrease with the rise of salinity level, and organic amendments have improved productivity compared to the non-treated control. However, salinity stress alleviation was assessed by determining pigments concentration, proline content, phenolic compounds, and antioxidant activity. Therefore, the action of organic amendments varies from one level of salinity to another. Furthermore, a remarkably significant decrease in total saponin content was reached due to the application of amendments even at high saline conditions (20 dS·m-1). The results demonstrate the possibility of enhancing the productivity of quinoa as an alternative food crop under salinity conditions by using organic amendments and improving the quality of grains (saponin reduction) during the pre-industrialization process.

How Does Mechanical Pearling Affect Quinoa Nutrients and Saponin Contents?

Agriculture is facing many challenges, such as climate change, drought, and salinity, which call for urgent interventions for fast adaptation and crop diversification. The introduction of high-value and stress tolerant crops such as quinoa would be a judicious solution to overcome constraints related to abiotic stress and to increase land productivity and farmers' incomes. The implementation of quinoa in Morocco has not been supported by a full valorization program to control the quality of quinoa seeds. The novelty of this work is to assess the pearling operation as an efficient method of saponins removal as well as the determination of total residual saponins. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of several pearling durations on nutrient and saponin content of quinoa seeds of three tested varieties (Puno, Titicaca, and ICBA-Q5). Five pearling durations were tested (0, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8 min) using a locally manufactured pearling machine. The results indicated that a pearling duration of two minutes was enough to reduce total saponin content from 0.49% to 0.09% for Puno variety, from 0.37% to 0.07% for Titicaca variety, and from 0.57% to 0.1% for ICBA-Q5 variety. Our results showed that pearling slightly reduced protein, total fat, and moisture contents for all varieties except for Puno, where total fat content slightly increased with the pearling. Puno variety had the highest seed content in terms of protein and total fat; the ICBA-Q5 variety had the lowest. Titicaca had the highest bran content in terms of protein and total fat, ICBA-Q5 had the highest bran content in terms of ash and the lowest bran content in terms of protein and total fat, and Puno had the lowest bran content in terms of ash. Pearling had no significant effect on macronutrient contents in the processed seed, but it resulted in a very highly significant difference for most of them in the bran except for Mg and S. Regarding seed content in terms of micro-nutrients, statistical analysis showed significant differences between varieties in terms of Zn, Cu, and Mn contents, but no significant difference was recorded for Fe or B. Pearling had no significant effect on seed micronutrient contents. Therefore, to retain maximum nutritional content in the quinoa and maintain quinoa integrity, it is necessary to limit the pearling duration of quinoa to two minutes, which is enough to reduce saponin content below the Codex Standard threshold (0.12%).

Development of Quinoa Value Chain to Improve Food and Nutritional Security in Rural Communities in Rehamna, Morocco: Lessons Learned and Perspectives.

Agricultural production in the Rehamna region, Morocco is limited with various challenges including drought and salinity. Introduction of climate resilient and rustic crops such as quinoa was an optimal solution to increase farmer's income and improve food security. This study summarizes results obtained from a research project aiming to develop quinoa value chain in Morocco. The study tackled several aspects including agronomic traits (yield and growth), transformation, quality (nutritional and antinutritional traits) and economic analysis and, finally, a strength-weaknesses-opportunities-threats analysis, lessons learned and development perspectives were presented. From an agronomic point of view, introduced new quinoa cultivars showed higher performance than locally cultivated seeds and, furthermore, the use of irrigation and organic amendment has tremendously improved seed yield by double and three times, respectively, compared to rainfed conditions. Nutritional analysis revealed that protein and phosphorus content remained stable after seed pearling while most of the micronutrients content decreased after seed pearling. However, saponins content was reduced by 68% using mechanical pearling compared to 57% using both traditional abrasion and washing. The economic analysis showed that production cost of quinoa seeds could be further decreased using mechanized intensive tools along with irrigation and organic amendment supply. This study revealed several lessons learned from the field experience and proposed several development actions for each value chain component that can be implemented within a national quinoa program.

Techno-economic assessment of quinoa production and transformation in Morocco.

Agriculture is facing many challenges as climate change, drought, and salinity which call for urgent interventions to fast adaptation and diversification such as the introduction of new climate smart and stress tolerant crops such as quinoa. This study aims to introduce new high yielding quinoa cultivars conducted under several agronomic practices (rainfed, irrigation, and organic amendment) and to assess the technical and economic aspects related to quinoa seed production, transformation, and quality. Results obtained from agronomic trials clearly showed that International Center for Biosaline Agriculture cultivars recorded higher yields than locally cultivated seeds. Irrigation and organic amendment had a tremendous effect on quinoa productivity as it increased most of cultivar's yield by more than three times compared with rainfed conditions. Production cost analysis showed that using mechanized production and processing practices combined with irrigation and organic amendment can reduce seed production and processing cost from 2.8 to 1.2 USD kg-1 compared with manual production system under rainfed conditions. The diagnosis of the quinoa transformation pathways revealed different transformation levels, and the production cost increased with the level of transformation due to high cost of labor and raw material. Analysis of quinoa seeds showed that macronutrient content is mostly not affected by pearling process, while micronutrients content was significantly decreased in processed seeds. In addition, total saponin content was reduced to an acceptable level after using mechanical pearling compared with manual abrasion.

Quinoa value chain, adoption, and market assessment in Morocco.

Agriculture faces many challenges such as climate change, droughts, and salinity, which requires urgent interventions for fast adaptation and diversification of the sector. In this context, introduction of new crops that tolerate stresses and generate high added value such as quinoa would allow simultaneously to address two interlinked challenges: abiotic stresses that limit agricultural production and poverty that impacts negatively the rural people. The quinoa Rehamna project funded by the International Development Research Centre aims to contribute to the development the quinoa value chain toward achieving food and nutritional security of rural poor communities. The obtained results from the farmer's survey show that 14% of surveyed farmers already grow quinoa and 2/3 never heard about quinoa, among them 96% are interested to grow quinoa. The marketing study reveals that the psychological price that satisfies most of consumers is ranging between 2 and 2.6 USD/500 g of processed quinoa seeds. The findings indicate that quinoa has a great potential for both producers and consumers in Morocco and can be a judicious solution toward achieving food and nutritional security.