CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Cañahua (Chenopodium pallidicaule) is a remarkably nutritious grain of the high Andesarea that is cultivated in small plots in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peruand grows well at altitudes of up to 4,400 m in the extreme highland environment where wheat, rye, norcorn can grow and where even quinoa cannot yield well at the altitudes where cañahua grows. Depending on the region where it grows,cañahua has different names: kañawa, kañiwa, or cañihua. In this chapter interchangeably kañiwa and cañahua be usedThis Andean grain is perhaps the strongestcrop due toits resistance to frost, drought, salt, and pests. At the time of the Conquest, cañahua grain was an important food in the high Andes. Nowadays, it is cultivated in the Peruvian and Bolivian high Andean plateau,consumed by local population and bought in Andean markets.Cañahua is an erect or semi prostrate, highly branched plant that grows from 25 to 60 cm high and varies in precocity; one kind matures in only 95 days from the date of sowing, although the preferred varieties take about 150 days before they are harvested (Gade, 1970).The plant is not completely domesticated, and it often grows almost like a weed, reseeding itself year after year.Agronomic classifications have been devised based on plant shape and seed color. There are two "ecotypes": an erect plant (saihua) with 3?5 basal branches and determinate growth, and a semierect type (lasta) with more than 6 basal branches and indeterminate growth. Each of these types is further classified by the black or brown color of the seed. The erect types usually grow faster for about 70 days, at which time dry-matter production ceases and the plants flower. The semierect types continue to grow throughout the season, and eventually produce more stems and dry matter than the erect types. Some 380 accessions have been collected and are under evaluation in Puno, Peru.