Argentina: Varvarco, a Neuquén community guardian of quinoa

In Argentina most of the quinoa plantations are concentrated in Salta and Jujuy. However, in North Patagonia the crop subsists in Mapuche and Creole communities and is cultivated in different places on a family scale. INTA, together with families from Varvarco –north of the province of Neuquén– works in the conservation of this crop to revalue the genetic material of local quinoa and provide knowledge for its production. From the work with these communities, it was shown that the quinoa seeds were obtained through commercial exchanges or exchanges of local products. The seeds of ‘quingüa’, ‘kinwa’ or ‘quinoa’ –as it is also known– that are grown in this area are the result of the work of family farmers in the process of adaptation to the ecological conditions of the Neuquén mountain range. Miryam Barrionuevo, a technician from INTA's IPAF Patagonia, pointed out that the plant materials grown in this area have phenotypic characteristics and phenological stages similar to quinoas ...