Impact of Irrigation Deficit on Yield, and Water Productivity of Quinoa

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out to ivestigat the impact of irrigation deficit on Quinoa (chenopodium quinoa Willd) variety Chipaya. The sowing date was Nov. 11, 2018, and the harvesting date was March. 17, 2019.The irrigation regimes (irrigation deficit) were in the rate of 40, 60, 80, and 100% of the reference evapotranspiration (ET0) as compared with rainfed irrigation as control. The experimental design was a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replicates. The results indicated that the irrigation regimes had a significant effect on Quinoa productivity. The best effect of irrigation regimes on the gross seed yield of quinoa was recorded with 100% of ET0 irrigation regime corresponding to an increase by 155.56% over the rainfed irrigation. Seed yield reached the highest values of 0.616 ton/fed at 100% of ET0,.Also, there were no significant differences between irrigation at 100 and 80 % of the ET0 irrigation regime. Seed weight per plant, and per m 2 had the highest values with 100% of ET0. It increased by about 216.70 and 216.68% over the rainfed irrigation. The total applied water (TAW) were 931.4, 796.6, 658.0, 523.3, and 285.6 m 3 /fed for irrigation treatments of 100, 80, 60, and 40% of ET0 and rainfed irrigation, respectively. The irrigation water-use efficiency (IWUE) or water productivity (WP) as kg grain/m 3 of applied water reached the values of 0.681, 0.655, 0.806, 0.778, and 0.712 kg/m 3 for 100, 80, 60, 40% of ET0, and rain-fed treatments, respectively.Irrigation at 100 or 80% of ET0 gave the highest seed yield. Nevertheless, irrigation at 60% of ETO gave the highest water productivity (IWUE).

Assessment of the changes in seed yield and nutritional quality of quinoa grown under rainfed Mediterranean environments

“…The relatively low rainfall of 2019 was insufficient to satisfy the water crop requirements causing plant water stress, resulting in yield penalties in the non-irrigated plots (Supplementary Table 2), as previously observed in former quinoa field studies (Maliro et al, 2017). However, the larger amount of precipitation in 2020, especially in the La Orden experimental station, together with the inherent drought tolerance of quinoa (Khaled et al, 2021) prevented plants from suffering water stress, achieving similar yields in FR than in I. However, in Maguilla (HR), although the rainfall was larger in 2020 than in 2019 (still lower than in La Orden), water stress was strong enough to cause yield penalties in this area, as it occurred in 2019.…”

“…Thus, quinoa has the potential to contribute to minimizing food insecurity worldwide and has the capacity to grow under rainfed conditions in arid and semiarid regions, where water is scarce (Bhargava et al, 2006), including the Mediterranean region where there is an increasing interest in its cultivation (Chaudhary et al, 2023). In line with this, the tolerance of quinoa to water stress has been associated with water-saving strategies that the plant triggers under drought, including protectant mechanisms and an inherent low osmotic potential that involve the synthesis of antioxidant metabolites or organic solutes, like proline, carotenoids, and total soluble sugars, that help to maintain cell turgor pressure, together with different adaptive morphological responses, such as a reduced leaf area (Jacobsen et al, 2009;Hinojosa et al, 2018;Khaled et al, 2021;Saddiq et al, 2021;Maestro-Gaitań et al, 2022;Hamoud et al, 2023).…”

“…This has been in part due to the high nutritional value of its seeds [quinoa seeds are gluten-free and possess a prominent protein content (9%-23%) with a balanced amino acid profile, highquality fat, and antioxidants (Angeli et al, 2020;Rodrıǵuez Goḿez et al, 2021)] but also to the stress tolerance to different environmental factors such as salinity or drought (Killi and Haworth, 2017;Saddiq et al, 2021). The genetic diversity of quinoa confers this plant the potential of growing under a wide range of environments, including unfavorable soil and climatic conditions (Khaled et al, 2021), and, consequently, is a wellrecognized climate-resilient plant that constitutes an interesting alternative to traditional crops for new climate change scenarios (Bazile et al, 2016;Hinojosa et al, 2018;Ahmadi et al, 2019). Thus, quinoa has the potential to contribute to minimizing food insecurity worldwide and has the capacity to grow under rainfed conditions in arid and semiarid regions, where water is scarce (Bhargava et al, 2006), including the Mediterranean region where there is an increasing interest in its cultivation (Chaudhary et al, 2023).…”