Development of a worldwide consortium on evolutionary participatory breeding in Quinoa

Chenopodium quinoa is gaining global importance due to its excellent protein quality and tolerance of abiotic stresses. Quinoa’s wide genetic diversity has led to its agronomic versatility and adaptation to different soil types, particularly saline soils, and environments with extremely variable conditions in terms of humidity, altitude, and temperature. Maintaining and increasing quinoa biodiversity is imperative, as the dynamics of the global expansion of quinoa may constitute a threat to farmers if the spread is generated with a narrow genetic base. In this article, the authors propose that the method of evolutionary participatory breeding could be a useful tool to develop new quinoa genetic material in cooperation with farmers. They introduce preliminary results on quinoa population development with farmers in the Pacific Northwest region of the USA, and conclude that a global collaborative network on quinoa (GCN-Quinoa) could be the baseline for participatory plant breeding programs originating in developing or developed countries to meet the needs of farmers across a diversity of agronomic systems and a wide range of physical environments.