'Mother Grain' nourishes rural farmers' livelihood

Rather than abandoning his rural home in the mountains of Shanxi Province to do hard, manual labor in a big city, Mao Cunlin, 57, farms at home, out-earning his migrant worker son.

Quinoa, a grain-like crop from the Andes known for its nutritious edible seeds, has brought prosperity to Mao and other farmers in the Luliang Mountains.

Known as "a food for the poorest of the poor," quinoa has been a staple in Latin American and South American countries for thousands of years. The so-called "Mother Grain"'s nutritional value, however, was not revealed until the 1980s, when it was found to be rich in protein, magnesium and iron, as well as a good source of dietary fiber, phosphorus and calcium.

The high-protein chenopod gained worldwide popularity as appetites for organic and whole foods have expanded in recent years. Bolivia, for example, raked in 64 million U.S. dollars from quinoa exports in 2011, spurring a cultivation boom.

Mao grew up in one of the poorest regions in northern China, where generations of people have suffered from poverty largely caused by the harsh environment. He spent much of his life not even knowing about the Andes.

In the pursuit of wealth, waves of Luliang residents have migrated to cities over the years, but quinoa cultivation is enabling some to stay behind.

Mao has already earned 50,000 yuan (about 8,000 U.S. dollars) from the 1.2 hectares of quinoa he planted in May -- a sum that is nearly double what his son makes as an urban laborer.

The crop can survive in the Andes as well as the Luliang Mountains, freeing people in both areas from the geographic constraints that prevent conventional profitable farming, said Hao Lijun, the head of Suopo Township who encouraged villagers to try cultivating the alien crop two years ago.

The quinoa in Shanxi has been planted on the 1,600-meter-high mountain slopes. The crop guarantees profits four times that of potatoes, Hao said, basing his estimates on how much it cost to buy quinoa online.

The United Nations General Assembly in December approved 2012 as "The International Year of Quinoa" for the crop's exceptional nutritional qualities, its adaptability to different agro-ecological floors and its potential contributions to the fight against hunger and malnutrition.

For the local government in the Luliang Mountains, poverty alleviation has been a major incentive for promoting quinoa cultivation across China, though such plans have met with failure in the past.

As early as 1992, a farming institute in Tibet made unsuccessful attempts to mass cultivate quinoa seeds from Mexico. Last year, Jingle County, Shanxi, was the first to successfully cultivate the crop.

Li Dexin, the top official of Jingle, said quinoa is expected to bring the county 10 million yuan in income this year.

"If every rural household plants one mu, every family can earn an additional 10,000 yuan a year," said Li. (One mu is equal to 0.067 hectare.)

The county government is also deliberating whether to build a research center for quinoa farming in China, expand the cultivation of the crop and experiment with post-harvest grain processing.

"More and more middle class Chinese in cities have begun to know this healthy food," said Wu Xiangyun, manager of Shanxi Jiaqi Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. "It has very strong market potential."

The growing wealth and changing appetites of urban Chinese have been driving changes in countryside farming techniques, presenting more opportunities for farmers who know urbanites' stomaches best.

Meanwhile, rural farmers are also seeing their consumption patterns change, especially when it comes to quinoa.

"We used to eat what we planted," said Sun Jianqing, a villager of Suopo. "But now, we can not afford to eat quinoa. We are better off selling it and buying rice and other grains from the town markets for ourselves."

Sun said even if mass cultivation brings down the market price of quinoa, it can still be much more profitable traditional grains.

"That's why I will definitely grow more quinoa next year," Sun said.