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
This may interest you
A diagnostic tool for phosphorus and nitrogen exports (P+N Edit)
The aim of this project was to consolidate current scientific knowledge with a view to developing a spatially referenced tool to predict diffuse sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus exports at the farm and watershed scale.
Researcher: Aubert Michaud, retraité
Irrigation roadshow: characterize, analyze, optimize, and raise awareness
The goal of this project was to develop an “irrigation roadshow” for eight farming regions in Québec.
Researcher: Carl Boivin
Development of cover crop techniques and their adaptation to the Estrie region
IRDA was in charge of conducting the economic analysis for this project carried out by Club agroenvironnemental de l’Estrie (CAE Estrie).
Researcher: Luc Belzile