Three years after the year 2013 was declared as the Year of Quinoa, a woman farmer in a village adjacent to the Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi, called Hundru village had harvested about 50 kg of quinoa grain from a small plot of land. She had tried to cultivate quinoa a high nutrient value crop in December 2015 on her farm land and got success. On invitation, we visited her farm and to us she had informed us that, except farm yard manure she had not applied any other external inputs and is happy with the produce she got. Now she is exploring the possibility of marketing the grain and approached us. When the organic labelled quinoa produce is available at Rs. 500 per 500 g packet, she is not able to fix up the price of her product but would like to sell it at half of the price. More than marketing of the product, she would like to go to seed production and make it available to her fellow farmers in the next season. Seeing her enthusiasm, we decided to support in marketing her produce using the social media and other websites. The interested persons who may wish to buy the produce may contact us. The information available on the internet says that overnight soaking and through rinsing with running water would remove the water soluble saponins and can be cooked like rice but with prior popping in a pan with little oil. There are a good number of recipes available on the internet for a good tasty nutrient quinoa preparation. Let’s explore the exotic nutrient food in Ranchi.
Sridhar Gutam 