Organic Farmers Co.’s quinoa plantation in Jaisalmer.
A few years ago, it was reported that the global craze for quinoa, the South American grain deemed a ‘superfood’, was starving the farmers of Peru. The country and neighbouring Bolivia account for most of the world’s production of quinoa. However, according to a study published in March this year, rising prices fuelled by overseas demand over the last few years have in fact benefitted cultivators.
Quinoa cultivation is one of the main livelihoods of Andean farmers, but no longer restricted to them. In recent years, North America and Europe have taken up quinoa farming and India has recently joined in albeit on a smaller scale. If you’ve ordered dishes with quinoa at restaurants such as The Pantry in Kala Ghoda, Kaboom in Lower Parel and Ballard Estate, Saboro in Churchgate and The Sassy Spoon in Bandra and Nariman Point, then you have sampled Indian quinoa.
Three years ago, Yash Agarwal, a former investment banker, planted his first batch of quinoa on the outskirts of Jaipur in Shekhawati. Agarwal wanted to furnish the menu at The Kitchen, a farm-to-table restaurant at the Jaipur Modern concept store that he co-owns in Jaipur, with local quinoa. After a successful harvest in Shekhawati, he planted the crop over three years and 100 acres of contract farm land in Jaisalmer and Pokhran. In April this year, the Mumbai-residing entrepreneur and his brother Shaan Agarwal launched Organic Farmers Co., a brand of quinoa products such as sweet and savoury snacks, quinoa flour and quinoa pasta. The partners have also been supplying their brand of quinoa to the restaurants mentioned above.
The Agarwal siblings have company. In December 2015, Namita Jatia, an urban farmer with 20 acres of land in Panvel, planted the crop over five acres. Her first harvest is up for sale on e-retail app Scootsy under the brand The Farmhouse Company, which also sells vegetables and other organic ingredients such as cooking oils and sauces. Jatia and her family are vegetarians and their motive to grow quinoa was to introduce a good source of protein in their diet. She is now working on getting more yields from their existing patch.
Quinoa is a ‘pseudo-grain‘ or a gluten-free seed that’s high up in the league of superfoods thanks to its high protein content. The trendy food has thus become a fixture on menus peddling healthy nosh in Mumbai. Locally farmed quinoa has a distinctly fresh flavour and is brown in colour unlike the polished imported variety, which is “a highly processed, cosmetically enhanced product to make it more marketable”, said Yash Agarwal. Imported quinoa sometimes languishes on stores shelves for months before it makes it to our plates.
In India, Andhra Pradesh and Uttarakhand are emerging as the main cultivators of quinoa. In 2013, Uttarakhand reportedly signed a horticulture research agreement with Peru to grow quinoa in the state and research institutes in Andhra Pradesh have successfully developed local varieties of the crop. Agarwal and Jatia sourced seeds from Peru. Jatia researched farms online and had the seeds picked up from a relative visiting the country. Agarwal did multiple trials with seeds from Andhra Pradesh and imported varieties and has developed a hybrid variety for the Organic Farmers Co. seed bank.
“Working with local cultivars of the grain is the responsible way of farming,” said Vikram Sankaranarayanan, managing director of SanLak Agro-Industries, which works with small-scale farmers to produce drought-resistant millets such as kodo and amaranth in Tamil Nadu. Sankaranarayanan has successfully experimented with quinoa in Maharashtra, from a cultivar developed in Hyderabad, but isn’t yet harvesting it commercially.
In addition to being highly nutritious – 60 to 100 grams per person, Sankaraynarayan said, provides a sufficient daily quota of protein – the crop is environmentally sustainable. Unlike wheat or rice, the latter of which Sankarayanarayan said requires 4,000 to 6,000 litres of water to yield a kilo, quinoa is a rain-fed crop that only requires the top soil to be wet for the seeds to germinate. Agarwal has thus been cultivating quinoa in semi-arid Rajasthan between October and March as the winters there are optimal for the growth of the crop. They’re also testing it in Himachal Pradesh and Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, where they believe they can yield two cycles owing to the conducive weather.
The sustainability coupled with its glamorous status is luring more urban individuals and companies into quinoa farming. “There’s no ready market for the grain in villages yet,” said Yash Agarwal. Farmers, he said, need to be convinced especially since there is uncertainty regarding the behaviour of the seed. Agarwal’s Organic Farmers Co. practices contract farming. So far, they’ve worked with 40 farming families with small holdings who they’ve been educating on the crop’s behaviour. The company gives them organic fertilisers and purchases whatever they grow, so there’s a minimum price guarantee. “In the event of a loss, they’re compensated completely,” said Agarwal.
The price of local quinoa has been determined by this uncertainty surrounding the crop, low yield per acre (which is common for a non-traditional grain, said Agarwal) and the intensive and expensive process of ridding the seed of naturally-occurring bitter saponins to make it edible. Jatia has priced her quinoa between Rs350 and Rs550 for 350 grams and Organic Farmers Co. retails its pearl quinoa at Rs279 for 250 grams and Rs499 for 500 grams. Compared to imported quinoa, which can cost as much as Rs1,300 per kilo, their prices are cheaper by a margin. It is, however, still the food of the privileged.
The potential these growers see in quinoa is not limited to the grain alone. For instance, both The Farmhouse Company and Organic Farmers Co. have introduced quinoa flour to be used as an alternative for making breads such as chapatis. Agarwal said that relatively few Indians eat salad, which is what quinoa is primarily utilised for in restaurants and cafes. In an attempt to make it a part of people’s daily consumption, Organic Farmers Co. is looking into additional uses for the grain, including quinoa-made protein supplements.
Shop for Organic Farmers Co.’s quinoa products here and for The Farmhouse Company’s quinoa here. You can also purchase other local brands of quinoa on Amazon and Foodesto.