History of Quinoa: Its Origin, Domestication, Diversification, and Cultivation with Particular Reference to the Chilean Context

Abstract

The biogeography of quinoa (Chenopodium quinua Willd.) provides a comprehensive view of a crop that is relatively minor in Chilean agriculture, despite growing in a large geographical area (18°– 47°S). Quinoa's genetic diversity illustrates that it is a vital crop in the South American Andes region. It was domesticated in various geographical zones, which generated a wide variety of adaptative morphological and environmental features. Specific adaptations in each macrozone throughout the Andes have created five ecotypes, associated with subcen-tres of diversity. Two ecotypes are present in Chile – quinoa from the salt flats in the country's extreme north: Salare quinoa, and quinoa from sea-level areas in the central and south central regions: Coastal quinoa. Recently, these ecotypes have been associated with diverse production systems, depending on their biophysical, social and cultural features. Public policies and market relations also play a vital role in determining production system dynamics.

Full text

Chapter 2
History of Quinoa: Its Origin,
Domestication, Diversification, and
Cultivation with Particular Reference to the
Chilean Contex t
Enrique A. Martínez
1
,FranciscoF.Fuentes
2
, and Didier Bazile
3
1
Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas, La Serena and Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Universidad Católica del
Norte, Coquimbo, Chile
2
Facultad de Agronomía e Ingeniería Forestal, Ponticia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 306-22, Santiago, Chile
3
UPR47, GREEN, CIRAD (Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement),
TA C-47/F, Campus International de Baillarguet, 34398 Montpellier, Cedex 5, France
QUINOA ORIGINS IN THE CENTRAL ANDES
Quinoa, a tetraploid crop plant, was described for
the rst time in 1797 by the German botanist and
pharmacist Carl Ludwig Willdenow. It has been
cultivated for the past 8,000 years in the South
American Andes. It is hypothesized that the
closest ancestors of quinoa could be the species
Chenopodium berlandieri var. nuttalliae, distributed
in North America, or a complex of species grow-
ing in the southern hemisphere, including
Chenopodium pallidicaule Aellen (Kañahua),
Chenopodium petiolare Kunth, Chenopodium
carnasolum Moq., and the tetraploïd species,
Chenopodium hircinum Schard or Chenopodium
quinoa var. melanospermum. All these species are
from the Andes (Wilson and Heiser 1979; Heiser
and Nelson 1974; Mujica and Jacobsen 2000;
Fuentes et al. 2009a). The areas cultivated with
quinoa in South America goes from 2
∘
North
latitude in Colombia to 47
∘
South latitude in
Chile, and from 4,000 m in the high Andes to the
Quinoa: Improvement and Sustainable Production, First Edition. Edited by Kevin Murphy and Janet Matanguihan.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
sea level in southern latitudes. Particular adapta-
tions of this species to certain geographical areas
along the Andes gave rise to ve major ecotypes
associated with subcenters of diversity, differing
in branching morphology and adaptations to
rainfall regimes with precipitation of 2000 mm
per year to strong drought stress of 150 mm per
year. These ecotypes are the (i) Inter Andean
valleys quinoa (in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru);
(ii) Highlands quinoa (in Peru and Bolivia);
(iii) Yungas quinoa (in Bolivian subtropical for-
est); (iv) “Salares” quinoa in salt ats (in Bolivia,
northern Chile, and Argentina); and (v) Coastal
quinoa, from lowlands or from sea level (in central
and southern Chile). The expansion routes from
the Titicaca Lake were summarized by Fuentes
et al. (2012) and supported with genetic data as
revealed with the use of molecular markers.
The domestication process must have included
all factors of the domestication syndrome, includ-
ing larger fruit size, higher and uniform yields,
reduced branching and bigger inorescence,
19

20 Quinoa: Improvement and Sustainable Production
reduced seed dormancy, and less auto dehiscence
or seed fall. The quinoa landraces had also
adapted to different soils, climates, and partic-
ularly day-lengths as day-lengths grow longer
in the spring and summer seasons toward the
southern latitudes.
ANCIENT EXPANSION TO SOUTHERN
LATITUDES IN CHILE
Quinoa cultivation in Chile is centered primarily
on two of the ve main ecotypes, namely the
salt at (“salares”) and the coastal ecotypes.
The “salares” ecotype is distributed in the
Tarapacá and Antofagasta regions (18–25
∘
S) in
northern Chile, with elevations over 3,000 m high
(Fig. 2.1). In these regions, highland indigenous
communities (Aymara and Quechua people)
traditionally cultivate these quinoas in saline
soils, with precipitation uctuating between
100 and 200 mm per year falling during the
southern hemisphere summer, from December
to February (Lanino 2006). These ecotypes are
closely related to the quinoa Bolivian varieties
that are also of the “salares” ecotype, probably
because these are also cultivated by the Aymara
and Quechua communities on both sides of
the current Chile–Bolivia border. On the other
hand, there is evidence for the introduction of
some quinoa genetic materials from the Peruvian
Andean zone to the Antofagasta region. Despite
this evidence, the dominant morphology of most
of the quinoa studied so far in Chile is of the “salt
at” ecotype (Fuentes et al. 2009b).
In central Chile (Fig. 2.1) and even at the
more southern latitudes (43
∘
S) (O’Higgins to
Lakes’ political regions), the cultivated quinoa
are different landraces of the coastal ecotype.
Areas of quinoa cultivation are rain-fed and
have variable altitudes between sea level and
1,000 m height. A remarkable difference is that
compared to the extremely dry conditions where
the “salares” quinoa is grown in northern Chile,
rainfall in the central and southern zones of
Chile occurs during the southern hemisphere
winter (June–August), with rainfall uctuations
between 500 and 2,000 mm per year. This rainfall
increases steadily across 34–40
∘
S.
When the two ecotypes, “salares” and coastal
ecotypes cultivated in Chile, are compared, there
is a recognized and remarkable difference in
terms of their adaptation to altitude, tolerance to
drought and salinity, and day-length sensitivity
(Bertero et al. 1999; Bertero 2001). In addition,
the genetic backgrounds of the two main ecotypes
cultivated in Chile are also very different. Inter-
estingly, even within the southern coastal quinoa,
the genetic backgrounds are extremely diverse
(Fuentes et al. 2012).
Only one hybrid has been produced and
recorded in the Chilean national system of
protection for new varieties. The hybrid “La
Regalona” (Von Baer et al. 2009) has been bred
for higher yields and wide adaptation and is able
to grow under day-lengths in latitudes close to the
equator to latitudes as far as the polar latitudes up
to 40
∘
(S or N).
The expansion pattern of quinoa in Chile
implies that it underwent a micro-evolutionary
process, supported by a high genetic diversity
that made it possible for ancient peoples to select
quinoa adapted to contrasting and extended
agroecological gradients (Fuentes et al. 2012).
The quinoa adaptation process in Chile occurred
at least since the past 3,000 years, as revealed
by recent dating of seeds found in El Plomo
hill in Santiago, at central Chile (Planella et al.
2011). Seed exchanges occurred throughout
Chile even when ancient peoples from the north
(Aymara, Quechua, Atacameños or Licanantay,
Coyas, Diaguitas), from the center (Picunches,
Pehuenches), and from the south (Mapuches,
Huilliches) spoke different languages. The people
from the south even gave quinoa another name,
dawue (Sapúlveda et al. 2003).
REINTRODUCTION OF QUINOA IN ARID
CHILE AFTER LOCAL EXTINCTION
Quinoa cultivation probably disappeared very
early in the rst two regions colonized by the
Spanish conquerors some 400 years ago, in the
Santiago and the Coquimbo regions, at 33 and

History of Quinoa: Its Origin, Domestication, Diversification, and Cultivation 21
Peru
Bolivia
Chile
Ecuador
Colombia
Argentina
25°S
25°S
50°S
50°S
0°0°
(a)
(c)
(b)
(d)
Pacific Ocean
Fig. 2.1 Position of Chile in South America (right upper corner) where a long Atacama Desert (a) isolates the country from
southern Peru and Bolivia. Quinoa is cultivated in places as the eastern Altiplano (b) at 4,000 m high (“salares” ecotypes), in the
center (c) and south (d) of the country (“coastal” ecotypes) at sea level or piedmont (1,000 masl).
30
∘
S, respectively. The recent ongoing efforts
to reintroduce quinoa in the arid region of
Coquimbo are supported by the scientic com-
munity. In 2003, a new research center, Centro de
Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas (CEAZA),
started its activities in this northern zone of Chile.
One of the objectives of the research conducted in
this region is to relate climate change and natural
and human-induced activities on natural and
cultivated lands and coastal waters. In this region
(29–32
∘
S), the climate is mediterranean-desertic
and semi-desertic with a marked seasonality, with
rainfall occurring in winter and 8–10 dry months
per year (Novoa and López 2001). The weather
information available indicates that average
rainfall in La Serena (30
∘
S) has dropped about
100 mm (50%) in the past century (Martínez
et al. 2009a), placing it among those regions with
the greatest decrease in precipitation worldwide
(http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/tpbiodiv_s.pdf ).
These changes in precipitation coincided with
increases of 0.6
∘
C in the earth’s temperature dur-
ing the past century (http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/
un/ipccwg1s.pdf ).
The environmental conditions in the Co-
quimbo region are transitional between the
Mediterranean climate and the Atacama Desert.
Its main transversal (East-West) valleys (Elqui,
Limarí, and Choapa) present an increasing
pluviometry from the North to the South, with
approximately 60 mm per year rainfall in the
Elqui Valley to 300 mm per year in the Choapa
valley (Favier et al. 2009). Farmers lost income
from grain crops such as wheat due to low yields.
Farmers who had more income started farming
fruit plantations for export and have been using
drip irrigation (Jorquera 2001). Even though
quinoa had been cultivated as early as 3000 B.P.
in the arid region of Coquimbo (Planella et al.
2011), it probably disappeared very early during

22 Quinoa: Improvement and Sustainable Production
the Spanish conquest when the conquistadores
introduced wheat and other European crops. The
city of La Serena was the second city founded in
Chile, after Santiago, and farmers around both
cities have forgotten even the word “quinoa.”
The social memory loss of quinoa has driven this
crop to near extinction in Chile, with less than
300 quinoa farmers represented in the national
agronomic statistics (INE 2007). In fact, all
ancestral seeds have been lost from the arid region
of Coquimbo. When this fact was known, CEAZA
started to acquire quinoa seeds through eld col-
lections in the rest of the country, from farmers
in the Andes highlands, who cultivate quinoa
at 4,000 m high, and also from other sources in
southern latitudes at sea level (34–40
∘
S). The
rst efforts focused on evaluation of the seeds
collected for their adaptation to the arid region,
particularly to determine if quinoa could be
cultivated under the current low precipitation.
The tests were also conducted to determine if
quinoa could replace the wheat crop in areas
from which it has already disappeared due to
the increasing drought trend. The rst results
indicated that seeds from the center and south
of Chile gave higher yields than those collected
from the Andes highlands if sown in the spring
season (Martínez et al. 2007, 2009b). Later on,
results showed that extremely low irrigation was
adequate for the quinoa to produce seeds but
under experimental conditions, where all water
applied was from articial irrigation (Martínez
et al. 2009a). Such experiments showed that
quinoa could grow and produce seeds under
extremely low levels of irrigation, equivalent to
50 mm of rainfall, but applied at very precise
moments of the cycle (growth, owering, and
rain lling). However, precipitation at critical
growth stages cannot be assured for farmers
who depend solely on rainfall. Even though
rainfall could reach 100 mm per year, there are
years when majority of the rainfall comes in a
span of a few days, as in the case in 2012, when
90% of the rainfall came in a single autumn day.
Thus, experimental results can only predict the
economic prot and yields from the arid region of
Chile if articial irrigation is provided. However,
for other southern and more rainy regions of
the country, quinoa undoubtedly can be a good
rain-fed crop for the future.
Quinoa’s tolerance to abiotic stresses is one of
the reasons why the Food and Agriculture Orga-
nization (FAO) of the United Nations declared
2013 as the International Year of Quinoa and to
promote it as one of the crops that alleviate world
hunger and poverty. Other reasons to promote
quinoa are related to its outstanding capacity to
withstand other stressful conditions such as frost
and salinity in soils and irrigation water. Our
experience in reintroducing quinoa in the arid
region of Chile conrmed that germinating seeds
have a high tolerance to salinity. Experimental
results also showed that genetic mechanisms
are triggered in response to salinity: either salts
are rejected from plant tissues or higher salt
concentrations can be tolerated inside the cell
vacuoles (Orsini et al. 2011; Ruiz-Carrasco et al.
2011). Both studies also revealed that quinoas
from central Chile and those from the high Andes
do have landraces highly tolerant to salt stress.
However, those landraces from the more southern
latitudes (39
∘
S) are less tolerant to salt stress, as
shown by the study of Delatorre-Herrera and
Pinto (2009).
The nutritional value of quinoa is another
aspect invoked by FAO to promote its world
cultivation and consumption. The presence of
the 20 amino acids in quinoa seed, and twice
the quantity of proteins than that of many
cereals, in addition to minerals, vitamins, good
quality oils and antioxidants, and good quality
starch, make quinoa seed of high nutritional
and functional value (Galwey 1992; Schlick and
Bubenheim 1996; Vega-Gálvez et al. 2010). All
these nutritional properties have been conrmed
for landraces of quinoa from the three ancestral
production zones in Chile (Miranda et al. 2011,
2012a, 2012b). Isoavones, important for improv-
ing milk during breast milk production, have
also been found in Chilean quinoa (Lutz et al.
2013). Other avonoids, probably from its seed
coat saponins, seem to be involved in antibacterial
activity (Miranda et al. 2013).

History of Quinoa: Its Origin, Domestication, Diversification, and Cultivation 23
FINAL REMARKS
The ancestral progenitors of quinoa might
have originated in North America, but quinoa
production and the culture that developed
alongside its cultivation and consumption is
known to be shared among the ancient peoples
of South America. In ancient times, quinoa was
grown from the southern part of South America
from the highlands of what is now Bolivia, to the
furthest austral latitudes and lowlands of Chile
and Argentina, where the agrocultural tradition of
quinoa almost disappeared. This long latitudinal
gradient implies at least 3,000 years of quinoa
acclimation to new lands, new climates, and
longer day-lengths. Interestingly, the nutritional
quality and stress-tolerant properties of quinoa
did not change. Efforts to reintroduce quinoa
to the arid regions of Chile have shown that
certain quinoa landraces could produce seed even
under extremely low irrigation levels, but it has
to be applied at precise points during the growth
cycle. At present, there is a wide range of quinoa
landraces that can be adapted to new areas in the
world. Stress-tolerant quinoa can be grown in
marginal areas or under harsher environments
where the more traditional crops cannot be
grown. Moreover, quinoa seed is extremely
nutritious and can fulll the need and demands of
a growing world population for high-quality food.
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