Quinoa – the rebirth of the "Inca grain"

The smallholders of the HAND IN HAND partner, ANAPQUI, focus on ensuring consistent sustainability

The beating heart of ANAPQUI is located in the southern part of Altiplano, in the highlands of Bolivia. More than 2,200 members, most of whom are of indigenous descent, live here, in close proximity to the world's largest salt lakes. They grow quinoa – certified organic, fairly traded and in harmony with Pachamama, Mother Earth.

Altiplano, the high plateau of the Central Andes, is a barren, nearly hostile environment. The climate is cold and dry, and the wind is omnipresent. At the same time, the air starts getting thin here at around 3,600 metres above sea level. Between the white glistening of the salt crust and the azure blue of the sky, the rusty red of the volcanic mountains and the ochre of the highland steppe fields suddenly light up. A herbaceous plant, which reaches a height of up to two metres and boasts a myriad of red, yellow, white, green, and purple shades, provides an overwhelming sight.

It is quinoa. In their communities, some of which are rather remote, farming families cultivate this pseudo-cereal – and to be more precise, Quinoa Real, the “royal quinoa”, a traditional, noble variety, with a slightly larger grain size and mildly nutty taste – on the predominantly sandy and salty soils. The robust plant copes well with the extreme conditions and the altitude of 3,600 to 3,800 metres.

ANAPQUI in a nutshell

Smallholder farmers' association, with more than 2,200 members
Cultivation of organic quinoa (“Quinoa Real”) in Altiplano Sur, the highlands of Bolivia
Own processing in El Alto and global export
Cooperation with Rapunzel since 1995, HAND IN HAND partner since 1999

Consistent organic farming and fair trade offers real prospects to people in the Andean highlands.

Queen Quinoa – The history of an exceptional grain

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The pseudo grain, quinoa, which has been cultivated for thousands of years, allowed advanced civilisations to flourish in the harsh Altiplano environment, long before our time. When the Spanish conquered the Inca Empire, they banned the cultivation of quinoa (and its “sister crop”, amaranth), with the purpose of weakening the indigenous population. As a result, quinoa nearly fell into oblivion over the centuries. In the 1980s, cheap imported USA wheat threatened to put an end to the local market.

Some farmers' associations in Altiplano decided to fight this development. In 1983, they joined forces to form ANAPQUI (an acronym of “Asociación Nacional de Productores de Quinoa”). Their goal: save their former staple food – and find new processing and marketing possibilities. Their steadfastness was rewarded.

It was space travel of all things that helped the royal “grain of the Incas” regain its former glory. In 1993, NASA praised the frugal plant as the ideal food for future space colonies. This was the beginning of a new success story. In the course of the past 30 years, the pseudo-cereal started its triumphal march worldwide – not least after the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) declared 2013 to be the “International Year of Quinoa”.

The 'grain of the Inca' is radiant.

First selection and cleaning steps are done in the field.

An organic farmer cleans her quinoa crop, using the traditional method of winnowing.

"It is gratifying to see how quinoa cultivation has developed in recent years," says farmer Felicidad Gonzales, a member of ANAPQUI. "We have organic farming and fair trade to thank for that. Many families have returned because of the good prospects offered by quinoa cultivation today."

However, the boom has brought with it a whole new set of challenges – by those who have forgotten "Pachamama". This is because, in light of the intensification of agriculture, the fragile balance of the plateau is coming under increasing pressure.

Cultivated areas are being significantly expanded, even on land that was not traditionally used for cultivation. Important fallow periods are reduced or even fully omitted. The use of heavy machinery is damaging the soil. This, together with the decline in vegetation – and thus ever-increasing distances between wind traps in the form of perennial shrubs – is increasing soil erosion. Under such conditions, it is all the more important to ensure consistent organic cultivation and a clever balance between labour-saving modernisation and resource-saving manual labour. This is where ANAPQUI's work comes in.

Cultivation and processing

For many ANAPQUI members, quinoa is the most important source of income. Some also own llamas, and less frequently sheep, while potatoes and beans can also be grown for self-sufficiency purposes in some regions.

Before sowing, the farming families loosen the soil manually or mechanically, wherever this seems possible and sensible. In September, when spring begins in the southern hemisphere, the farmers sow the seeds. In the following growing months – it is the time with the highest rainfall on the otherwise dry plateau – the work remains manageable. This includes removing weeds and also containing the increasingly prevalent pests. A moth is the quinoa plants’ biggest problem. The farming families use pheromone traps to fight it, which are provided free of charge by ANAPQUI.

The "Inca grain" is harvested in April, sometimes into June. The plants are arranged in sheaves for drying. A few days later, the farmers spread the plants out on a cloth and thresh them with the help of a tractor. They then clean the harvest by hand, using a sieve and the traditional method of winnowing: The threshed ears are thrown into the air with a sieve, the wind blows away the husk and chaff, and the quinoa seeds land back on the sieve.

The quinoa harvest is first collected in Challapata, before going to the processing plant in El Alto.

We know where it comes from: Barbara Altmann, Head of Rapunzel Sustainable Supply Chain Management, visits ANAPQUI.

ANAPQUI buys the harvest directly from the farmer families, on site, and has each lot or batch analytically tested in advance. This way, the association once again ensures organic quality, and the families benefit from the fact that there are no middlemen making money with their harvest. ANAPQUI first gathers the quinoa in a storage facility in Challapata – a small town between Oruro and Potosí. From there, the quinoa goes to its own processing plant in El Alto, a city of millions located on the edge of the plateau.

ANAPQUI exports the majority of the quinoa harvest as a whole “grain” to Europe, to North America and to other regions of the world. About one quarter remains on the domestic market – also because of a state aid programme for breastfeeding mothers and public school supplies – or ANAPQUI processes it into pasta, bread and other gluten-free products.

Management system for social, ecological and economic sustainability

"ANAPQUI’s objective is to rethink the issue of sustainability at all stages of the supply chain," explains Abraham Apaza, Managing Director of ANAPQUI. In recent years, the association has bundled its efforts into a comprehensive, sustainability management system – definitely also a role model for other HAND IN HAND partners. A good reason why it was at the centre of attention at one of the HAND IN HAND workshops, where the partners meet at Rapunzel.

In this way, the smallholder association would like to align itself in a more clearly strategic and operational manner and keep an eye on future challenges. Among others, the measures derived from this include training members in cost analysis – very much in line with the Fair Trade spirit, which endeavours to empower smallholder farmers to become self-determined entrepreneurs and genuine partners at eye level. However, this is not all as, in light of the challenges of climate change, long-term adaptations are also part of this.

ANAPQUI invests a great deal – not least with the help of the Rapunzel HAND IN HAND premium – in advising the farming families. For this, it has founded its own company, PROQUINAT, which organises and implements training courses. The association also runs its own tree nursery: The members plant native shrubs that grow at these altitudes as vegetation to grow around the quinoa surfaces. Their purpose: to reduce soil erosion in the highlands, especially by wind.

Also from the Rapunzel HAND IN HAND fund (today: HAND IN HAND donation), several projects have already been funded to re-vegetate the highlands with bushes and shrubs, but also the development of alternative forms of cultivation. Most recently, ECOTOP – a trailblazer when it comes to dynamic agroforestry – received funding for a pilot project aimed at integrating agroforestry methods in quinoa cultivation.