Cañahua: An Ancient Grain for New Foods

Abstract

Cañahua ( Chenopodium pallidicaule ) is a remarkably nutritious grain of the high Andes area that is cultivated in small plots in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru and grows well at altitudes of up to 4400 m in the extreme highland environment where wheat, rye, nor corn cannot 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 kñiwa and cañahua be used. This Andean grain is perhaps the strongest crop due to its resistance to frost, drought, salt, and pests. At the time of the Conquest, cañahua grain was an impor- tant food in the high Andes. Nowadays, it is cultivated in the Peruvian and Bolivian Andean plateau, consumed by local population and bought in Andean markets. Cañahua is an erect or semiprostrate, 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