Adaptability and yield potential of quinoa as an introduction food crop under cold arid climatic conditions of Ladakh

Quinoa is adapted to grow under unfavorable soil and climatic conditions and has high nutritional value. The field experiment was carried out at High Mountain Arid Agriculture Research Institute, Ladakh during 2017 and 2018 to study whether the quinoa crop is adaptable to the Agri-environment of Ladakh as an introduction crop through different date of sowings and fertilizer levels. The experiment with four nitrogen levels (0, 75, 100, and 125 Kg ha-h) and three date of sowing (24th May, 8th June and 22nd June) was conducted to estimate the adaptability and yield potential through evaluation of parameters like, Plant height(cm), days to maturity, Test weight, Harvest index and yield ha-h.. Results indicated that 125 kg N ha-h with date of sowing at 8th of June is the best treatment combination with highest yield (14.97 q ha-h in 2018 and 14.45 q ha-h in 2017) whereas the lowest yield (4.66 q ha-h in 2017 and 4.86 q ha-h in 2018) was obtained in the treatment with 0 kg N ha-h and date of sowing at 24th May under Ladakh climatic conditions.