UAF NEWS

Speakers at a workshop on Friday called for ensuring food and nutrition security by promoting high-resistant alternative crops and super food to meet the demands of increasing population, and to curb malnutrition.

They addressed stakeholder workshop on promotion of Quinoa as alternative crop for the food and feed production arranged at the Department of Agronomy University of Agriculture Faisalabad in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization. Addressing on the occasion UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said Quinoa was maintaining a nutritional profile and its health benefits are high compared to wheat, maize and rice. He said we should benefit from the alternative crops to meet our local demands and capture international markets to earn heavy foreign exchange. He said that Quinoa is also high in fiber magnesium B vitamins iron potassium calcium phosphorus vitamin E and various beneficial antioxidants. He said that there is a need to develop local seed producer to meet the country demand. He said that seven million hectares in the country was salt-affected. Quinoa has climate-resilient behaviour and is well adapted to frost, salinity and drought conditions. He said that we have to refine its quality and increase the per acre production in the country. Dean Faculty of Agriculture Dr Javed Akhtar stressed upon the participants to expedite the efforts for the food security in the country. He was of the view that the country was blessed with four seasons fertile land and natural resources. He said Quinoa can be cultivated in drought-affected or salinity-stressed areas. He said that Quinoa is gluten-free high in protein and one of the few plant foods that contain sufficient amounts of all essential amino acids. He said that we have to introduce various dishes of the Quinoa to promote its among the people. FAO Representative Bou Zhou said that China is one of the largest of the Quinoa producer. He said that being the super food it will help in the nutritional deficiency in the countries. He said that Japan is one of the largest importer of Quinoa. FAO representative Dr Shakeel Khan said that it is highly national value crop that must be promoted among the farming community and in the society to curb with the issue of malnutrition. He said that they were making all possible measures to promote among the farming community. He added that in the stakeholder meeting, the people around the country was participating. He said that faced with the challenge of increasing the production of quality food to feed the worlds population in the context of climate change, quinoa is an alternative for to fight food insecurity. Chairman Agronomy Department Dr Shahzad Basra said that Quinoa is a gluten free food and demand of the gluten free food is increasing worldwide. He said that said that malnutrition was area of concern for which expedited efforts are needed. He said that The Punjab Seed Council has approved the first quinoa variety UAF-Q7 in the country . The researchers from University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) have been working on various aspects since 2009 and UAF-Q7 showed the best performance in terms of a higher yield of up to 3 tonnes per hectare. Dr Irfan Afzal said that promotion of alternative crops would also help ensure the food security and to alleviate the hunger from the country. He said that Quinoa global seed market is likely to grow from $782 million in 2017 to $1.33 billion by 2025. European countries have been increasing the import of quinoa seeds for the past few years as it is considered a healthy alternative to more popular options. Addition of quinoa as an export item would be an advantage for exporters to overcome the gap of less utilisation of rice in the coming years.