Jamnagar farmers sow South American origin crop quinoa on trial
RAJKOT: It’s truly a wonder grain — packing in its little self all the right punches from nutrients and proteins to fibre, iron, magnesium, manganese, calcium, B vitamins to beauty-enhancing essentials! No wonder then, that the rich and crunchy edible seed, which has taken palates by storm across the world, has also tickled a motley group of some 20-odd enterprising farmers of Jamnagar district to test their farming skills by raising the earthy versatile food in their own land.
In search of an alternate rabi crop, these farmers learnt about this crop from a research station of Junagadh Agriculture University (JAU) based in Jamnagar. And so, South American quinoa (pronounced ‘keen-wa’) was sown alongside the regular rabi staples as an alternative crop. The Gujarati tillers are hopeful of a getting a good yield from their efforts in the coming days.