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.
From 2015 to 2018
Project duration
Field crops
Activity areas
Organic farming
Service
Québec-grown organic chia could attain yields exceeding those in Argentina.
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
In a wheat/grain corn/soya rotation, green manure can be used to obtain profitable organic grain corn yields while limiting phosphorus pollution.
Researcher: Christine Landry
A literature review, a survey of organic grain producers, and an analysis of historical yield and climate data in order to document the effects of climate extremes on yields and soil nutrient availability.
Researcher: Marc-Olivier Gasser
This project relies on the continuous measurement of field water table heights; water exports; as well as sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus runoff into drains at four field-crop production sites.
Researcher: Aubert Michaud, retraité