Jeremy has followed up his monumental NPR post on the effects of high quinoa prices on Andean growers ((Spoiler alert: They’re not bad, on either livelihoods or nutrition, though it’s not all sweetness and light. And as for the consumer…)), and his subsequent handy round-up right here, with a podcast over at Eat this Podcast. All the key players are duly interviewed, and it’s refreshing to hear the likes of Marc Bellemare, for example, in the flesh, as it were, rather than via tweets. One thing that hasn’t featured much in the discussion of the recent rise in prices is whether it has translated in greater interest in — and resources for — breeding the stuff. Which is not to say there isn’t a certain amount of quinoa breeding already going on. Maybe some of it is even of the gender-sensitive kind, examples of which are, incidentally, being sought by our friends at CGIAR. But more would probably be good. Oh, and conservation of the existing landraces too, of course.
Regarding the question of whether there has been a proportional increase in resources dedicated to quinoa breeding, the answer is… NO!
Dear Luigi,
We can read many things about quinoa spread in the media since the 2013 and the IYQ.
To avoid some misunderstanding, I published this essay last year with QUAE (in French), a Spanish version with LOM (Chile) will be available soon, and an English and an Arabic versions are in preparation.
People interested in understanding more in depth the relations between biodiversity dynamics and agricultural models could find new perspectives in this essay.
Best regards,
Didier Bazile
DIDIER, BAZILE, PhD and HdR in Rural Geography / Agroecology
CIRAD Visiting Expert in the area of NUS and In situ conservation of Agrobiodiversity
Quinoa International Focal Point at FAO-HQ
Seeds and Plant Genetic Resources – AGPMG
Plant Production and Protection Division
Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Room: C-776
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla – 00153 Roma – Italia
Tel. +39 0657054168 – Fax +39 0657056347
E-mail: Didier.Bazile@fao.org
Internet: FAO and CIRAD
State of the art report on quinoa around the world in 2013 (FAO/CIRAD)
Edited by Bazile, D., Bertero, D. & Nieto, C.
Le quinoa, les enjeux d’une conquête
Author: Bazile, D.
Published by QUAE