Keen on Quinoa

Quinoa is gaining a reputation in the developed world as an exotic grain that is good for both you and the environment. In the Andes, where quinoa has been cultivated for 5,000 years, it is a traditional staple for breakfast, lunch and dinner, not to mention commonly used in snacks and sweets. The rise of quinoa in developed countries created opportunities for poor farmers in the Andes, one of the harshest agricultural environments in the world, but it also brought problems. Damiana Astudillo, a Mickey Leland Congressional Hunger Fellow, has worked with Bioversity International for the past 2 years to understand the challenges of commercial quinoa cultivation in the southern Bolivian Altiplano.

Toasting grains of quinoa in a metal pan helps loosen the saponin and enhances the flavour of the grain. Preparing quinoa is a long and laborious process that is carried out mostly by women. D. Astudillo/Bioversity International.

Conditions on the Altiplano are extreme. Temperatures can range from -18 ° C to 27 ° C in a single day. Frost occurs overnight 225 times a year, rainfall averages less than 25 millimetres annually, and the sandy soils have very little organic matter. Quinoa is one of the few crops that thrive, and it provides excellent nutrition. Protein content ranges from 11% to 19% and is of very high quality, offering all eight amino acids essential for human health.

Communities of the southern Altiplano have responded quickly to expanding demand for their wonder grain. Production increased from about 5,600 tons in 1980 to more than 13,500 tons in 2001. In her study, though, Astudillo identified four major worrying trends as farmers switch from subsistence to commercial production. Quinoa diversity is being lost. A single variety now makes up 37% of production, and the top three account for 72%. This illustrates how market demand boosts the total amount of quinoa grown but also narrows the focus toward homogeneous varieties with commercial value. The move to commercial production has also affected the local diet. Farm families used to eat quinoa at every meal. Now, they can afford to buy other foods that are easier to prepare. With the time demands of commercial growing, it is no surprise that homemakers have turned to pasta, rice and processed foods. Nutrition has suffered because the substitute foods offer much less than quinoa.

The shift to commercial cultivation also threatens the environment. Villagers reap larger harvests by moving quinoa off the hills to the flatlands, but this has promoted such inappropriate technologies as disc harrows, which worsen wind erosion. In addition, farmers leave land fallow for shorter periods, which causes further erosion and depletes the few nutrients present in the soil.

Finally, the social life of the community has suffered. Where families used to help one another when needed and often worked together, increased mechanization makes families more independent - and so more isolated.

Astudillo worked with people of the Southern Altiplano to see whether things could be changed. Workshops helped raise awareness of the nutritional value of local quinoa, and new recipes to make quinoa more appealing had children queuing up for second helpings of pancakes. Even the best recipes, however, do not address the fundamental problem: preparing quinoa is a laborious, time-consuming affair.

Quinoa seeds are coated with a layer of saponin, which is not only exceedingly bitter but toxic. To clean the seeds, women toast them and then tread on them barefoot while the grains are still hot to loosen the saponin. The grains are then winnowed repeatedly to let the wind blow the dust away. Finally they are rinsed in water and set out to dry. Processing 12 kilograms of quinoa can take up to 6 hours.

Astudillo worked with a local mechanic and inventor to build a machine that reduces that processing time to 7 minutes. Communities not only found the machine's quinoa totally acceptable, they said they would pay up to 75 US cents to process 12 kilograms. This is important because the machines cost around US$800, which is more than a family could afford.

"The machine will reduce the burden of women's work and will facilitate the consumption of a nutritious grain," Astudillo observes. "This is a low-input, high-impact opportunity for practical rural development and the improvement of livelihoods of marginalized populations."