Quinoa: A New Crop for Plant Diversification under Water and Salinity Stress Conditions in Iran

Water scarcity and water salinity are major constrains for agricultural production in arid and semi-arid regions of Iran. Salt tolerant and high nutritious Andean crop, quinoa, is gaining interest as a food security crop outside the center of origin in various countries around the globe. Recently, it has been introduced into Mediterranean region and it is a good candidate crop for agricultural diversification. However, little documented investigations are presented about the possibility of quinoa to complete its developmental growth in non-native weather conditions. Therefore, three year experiment was conducted in a greenhouse at the College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, I.R. Iran to distinguish phenological stages, salinity and water stress reactions of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd) seeds of Danish bred cultivar (cv. Titicaca, no. 5206) in Fars province, Iran in presence of saline shallow groundwater. Results indicated that quinoa has potential to be adapted in Iran as a new crop and complete its developmental stage and produce seed yield (2.21 Mg ha-1 at 0.8 m saline groundwater depth with 20 dS m-1 water salinity at full irrigation management). Furthermore, 70% reduction in irrigation water resulted in 40% reduction in seed yield as compared with full irrigation management at 0.80 m groundwater depth; whereas seed yield water productivity was 1.16 kg m-3. Comparison between quinoa and other cereals which are sensitive to salinity and water stress such as rice emphasized the importance of plant diversity on food security especially under water scarcity and salinity.