EFFECT OF PLANT GEOMETRIES ON YIELD AND QUALITY COMPONENTS OF QUINOA LEAVES (Chenopodium quinoa) UNDER SOUTHERN TELANGANA

Abstract

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) belongs to the group of crops known as pseudo cereals (Cusack, 1984; Kozoil, 1993) and to the Amaranthaceae family Quinoa is one of the oldest crops in the Andean region, with approximately 7000 years of cultivation, and great cultures such as the Incas and Tiahuanaco have participated in its domestication and conservation (Jacobsen, 2003). Quinoa was first botanically described in 1778 as a species native to South America, whose center of origin is in the Andean of Bolivia and Peru. Recently, it has been introduced in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa (FAO, 2011). The year 2013 has been declared “The International Year of the Quinoa†(IYQ) by the United Nations. This crop is a natural food resource with high nutritive value and is becoming a high quality food for health and food security, for present and future human generations.