Chia: a new crop for organic production in Québec

Description

Because of its high omega content, chia is one of the foods that we now call "super food" or functional food. Chia, as an opportunity crop, can help make organic farms more diversified and profitable. This two-year project, conducted at the Organic Agriculture Innovation Platform, compared the effect of three seeding dates and three seeding rates on chia yields. Pests and diseases that could damage the new crop were also monitored. The project included an evaluation of production costs and an analysis of the economic and technical feasibility of growing chia.

Objective(s)

Determine the potential of chia as a crop in Québec
Test the feasibility of using early-blooming chia varieties developed in Kentucky,
Identify best cropping practices
Conduct a technical and economic analysis to check whether this crop would be profitable in Québec

From 2015 to 2018

Project duration

Field crops

Activity areas

Organic farming

Service

Québec-grown organic chia could attain yields exceeding those in Argentina.

Partners

Growing Forward 2 | Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec - Innov'Action Programme | Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada | Agri-Fusion 2000

Publications

Summary sheet • Laurence Jochems-Tanguay, Luc Belzile, Maryse Leblanc, Sandra Mougeot

Jochems, L., J. Boisclair, L. Belzile, M. Leblanc, T. Boislard, S. Chaussé, S. Mougeot. 2018. Le chia : une nouvelle culture pour la production biologique au Québec. IRDA. 2 p. Download

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