Production of Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa)in the Marginal Environments of South Mediterranean Region: Nile Delta, Egypt

Abstract

I NTRODUCING new crops to the marginal environments of south meditrranean region represnts one of the challenges to struggling the expected results of climate change on water quality and availability and on soil salinization. Quinoa as a halophyte was introduced to be one of strategic plants which can successfuly grow under the climatic conditions of north coast of Nile Delta, Egypt. The effects of sowing dates and various levels of water salinity on plant growth and yield of quinoa were examined. Sowing of quinoa at the beginning of winter season (last quarter of December where maximum air temperature was 18.8 and minimum was 8.2 o C) resulted in higher plant height, biomass and seed yields comparing with the sowing at second quarters of December and January. The optimum growth was associated with relative humidity about 68.8% and daylight cumulative hours about 1819 and cumulative sunshine hours about 977. Maximum yield of both biomass and seed resulted from plants irrigated with fresh water (EC = 0.65 dS m-1) and reductions in biomass and seed yields were observed with the increasing water salinity. But weight of 1000 seed increased as water salinity increased. Regardless the sowing date and/or water salinity, symptoms of powdery mildew disease (PMD) were observed on the quinoa leaves at about 53 days after sowing and progressed in appearance. The high percentages of relative humidity could be the major cause of spreading the disease in quinoa. The results of statistical ANOVA showed that biomass yield was significantly affected by sowing date whereas seed yield was markedly affected by water salinity. The study concluded to the possibility of cultivation of quinoa plant in salt affected soils in northern Nile Delta agricultural areas successfully as one of the solutions for the exploitation of marginal environments with the need for more studies related in ways that raise productivity through fertilizer transactions under the high irrigation water salinity conditions.