{"id":15786,"date":"2026-03-24T09:26:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/?p=15786"},"modified":"2026-04-02T09:43:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:43:34","slug":"umes-leads-efforts-to-boost-quinoa-production-in-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/cegfsd\/umes-leads-efforts-to-boost-quinoa-production-in-us\/","title":{"rendered":"UMES leads efforts to boost quinoa production in US"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Quinoa
Quinoa germplasm trial plot is shown at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Quinoa consumption has been steadily rising in the United States as consumers become increasingly aware of the health benefits of this nutrient-dense grain crop. Quinoa is rich in fiber, proteins, minerals and vitamins, and can be effectively used to supplement staples such as wheat and rice in the daily diet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quinoa cultivation in the U.S. is currently restricted to a few states in the Pacific Northwest, while a majority of the grain is imported from South America, with imports to the United States crossing more than $100 million in 2025. Major limitations currently affecting quinoa production in the U.S. include a lack of suitable heat-tolerant cultivars; the absence of equipment for quinoa crop management, harvest and post-harvest processing; and weak marketing channels for crop commerce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Efforts to breed quinoa cultivars that are suitable for cultivation in different regions of the United States, along with the optimization of management practices and marketing channels, can significantly reduce dependency on foreign nations and make the U.S. self-sufficient in quinoa production. This can increase accessibility of local markets to American farmers, thereby increasing their competitiveness and farm profitability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identifying suitable cultivars<\/h2>\n\n\n
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\"Graduate
Graduate student Keith Bucca learns to identify quinoa phenology stages along with UMES professor Dr. Sadanand Dhekney and Dr. Eric Jellen of Brigham Young University.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore initiated quinoa research in 2022. Under the aegis of the UMES Center of Excellence in Global Food Security, collaborations were established with Dr. Rick Jellen of Brigham Young University to source quinoa germplasm, screen it under hot and humid environmental conditions, and identify cultivars suitable for cultivation in this region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germplasm evaluation trials conducted from 2022 to 2025 under the supervision of Dr. Sadanand Dhekney of UMES resulted in the identification of two genotypes that performed well under conditions of high heat stress. Additional cultivars were identified that were suitable for early or late planting that could potentially avoid heat stress during quinoa flowering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to understand the genetic and molecular mechanisms of quinoa heat stress tolerance, experiments to expose plants to simulated heat stress were conducted by Dr. Purushothaman Natarajan and students at UMES. Nucleic acid samples were collected from stressed and non-stressed plants during the vegetative stages and flowering, and RNA sequencing was conducted to identify differentially expressed genes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gene expression analyses led to the identification of heat stress signaling pathways that could be utilized for breeding heat-tolerant quinoa cultivars suitable for cultivation in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, laboratory experiments were initiated to develop quinoa in vitro regeneration protocols that could be utilized for gene editing and genetic improvement. Two graduate students and several undergraduate students have been involved in project activities. Graduate students have made research presentations at state and national conferences to disseminate information on research activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Efforts to develop viable marketing avenues for quinoa are currently being explored by Dr. Stephan Tubene and his students. Additionally, quinoa production on the Eastern Shore of Maryland has been introduced to local farmers at various extension events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current and future activities include screening additional germplasm for identifying suitable cultivars, developing equipment for post-harvest quinoa processing and exploring marketing avenues farmers can use to market the crop. These efforts will be highly significant for establishing quinoa as a profitable crop for farmers in the United States, reducing our imports and dependency on South America, and contributing to building strong local and global food systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Graduate
Graduate student Antonio Junior planting quinoa seed for a germplasm evaluation trial at the UMES Research, Extension and Training Farm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Graduate
Graduate student John Ithiru inspects a quinoa genotype for the presence of fungal disease symptoms on a quinoa genotype at the UMES extension farm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quinoa consumption has been steadily rising in the United States as consumers become increasingly aware of the health benefits of this nutrient-dense grain crop. Quinoa is rich in fiber, proteins, minerals and vitamins, and can be effectively used to supplement staples such as wheat and rice in the daily diet.  Quinoa cultivation in the U.S….Read more UMES leads efforts to boost quinoa production in US<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2245,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":63,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,18],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-15786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cegfsd","category-sans-news-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15786"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=15786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}