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