amaranth

A combination of rice and amaranth in a 1:1 ratio has been reported to approach the FAO/WHO protein specifications (Singhal and Kulkarni 1988)
A. Seed Saving. Rice is naturally a self-pollinating plant. It is self-fertilizing.

Some rice is grown on soils that are not flooded; but soils well supplied with moisture are necessary and even then yields are much less than with flooded rice.
The requirement indicated by the meta-analysis (6) (a median requirement of 105 mg nitrogen/kg per day or 0.66 g/kg per day of protein) can be accepted as the best estimate of a population average requirement for healthy adults.

Yields and Economics

The world low production yield figure for rice in 1979 was 500 kg/ha in French Guiana, the international production was 2,615 kg/ha, and the world high production yield was 7,000 kg/ha in Gabon (FAO, 1980a). Highest experimental yields of rice exceed 12 MT. Rice straw is usually calculated as about equal production in dwarf varieties, two times production in conventional varieties. Rice chaff is figured at 0.25 times production. The highest phytomass figure I have to date for rice is 40 MT/ha/yr, which assumes 365 days a year of rice production (Duke, 1982a). Spurulina
India and Indonesia are often cited as examples of new food self-sufficiency, with an average yield per hectare increasing from 1.1 to 2.6 tons.

Amaranth:
It contains two times more calcium than milk.

Direct Seed
3 to 4 days, 60F to 90F

1 year
Well Drained Rich in Nitrogen and Phosperous (Tolerant of bad conditions)

Full Sun 7" to 10" apart 10" to 12" apart

Grain: 110 to 150

Precision seeding methods were used to plant 0.5 kg/ha of seed to attain a desired plant density of 300,000 plants/ha

Kiwicha's grains are scarcely bigger than poppy seeds. However, they occur in huge numbers sometimes more than 100,000 to a plant. For making yeast-raised breads or other leavened foods, kiwicha meal or flour must be blended with wheat meal or wheat flour because it lacks functional gluten.

Blends of 80 percent wheat and 20 percent kiwicha give normal leavening to breads, and the high lysine content of the kiwicha greatly improves the nutritional quality over that of breads made with wheat flour alone. NUTRITION Kiwicha produces mild-tasting, cereal-like seeds that have protein contents of 13 18 percent, compared to about 10 percent in corn and other major cereal foods. HARVESTING AND HANDLING Most types mature in 46 months. However, in some highland regions they may take as long as 10 months. Yields of 1,0003,000 kg of seed per hectare are not uncommon; up to 6,000 kg per hectare has been achieved in research plots. In 1987, a Peruvian farmer (using improved varieties and traditional farming methods) obtained a harvest of 5,000 kg per hectare in a 6-hectare farm field. AGRONOMY Kiwicha and other amaranths adapt to many environments and tolerate adversity because they convert the raw materials of soil, sunlight, and water into plant tissues by using an especially efficient type of photosynthesis. Known technically as the C4 carbon-fixation pathway, this process is particularly efficient at high temperature, in bright sunlight, and under dry conditions. Plants using it tend to require less water than those that use the more common C3 carbon-fixation pathway. The crop is easy to establish.