Reviving heritage grains - what is the next quinoa?

Bioversity International scientist, Stefano Padulosi, urges diversification of our food basket if we are to sustain ever-growing populations in a National Geographic article.

The article highlights how farmers and foodies are increasingly turning to grains that have been the basis of subsistence farmers' diets in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America since the origins of agriculture. This is resulting in nutritious and resilient forgotten crops, such as amaranth and teff, making a comeback.

Today just three crops – rice, wheat and maize – provide around 60% of our calories from plants. "This narrow food basket cannot sustain ever-growing populations," says Stefano Padulosi. "We must diversify".

Plants like amaranth are "resistant to drought, high temperatures and disease. so they might be crops of the future", says Danielle Nierenberg, President of Food Tank, in the article. "It is a case where going forward means we need to go back"

Read the article 'What's the next quinoa? Farmers, foodies revive heritage grains' in National Geographic

Photo: In Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, the cultivation of traditional grains – particularly quinoa, cañihua and amaranth – is making a comeback. Credit: Bioversity International/S. Padulosi