Effect of biological and chemical fertilizers on some biochemical and yield traits of two quinoa cultivars

To study the effect of organic and chemical fertilizers on the yield and some of the biochemical characteristics of quinoa, a three-factor factorial experiment was carried out in the form of a completely randomized design with three replications in the region of Borkhar, Isfahan, Iran, in the 2018-2019 crop year. In this experiment, Sajama and Titicaca cultivars as the first factor, four levels of  bio fertilizer including: without inoculation, nitroxin inoculation, biophosphorus inoculation, and inoculation with nitroxin and biophosphorus as the second factor, and four levels of chemical fertilizer including control, urea, triple superphosphate (TSP), and urea and superphosphate combination as the third factor were evaluated. Results showed that the interaction of the cultivar, bio fertilizer, and chemical fertilizer were significant on carotenoids, total carbohydrate, soluble protein, grain yield, biological yield and harvest index of quinoa. Thus, the integrated application of bio fertilizers along with all used chemical fertilizer treatments significantly increased the measured traits in both cultivars compared to the control treatment. Although the highest grain yield was observed in Sajama cultivar, Harvest index, which indicated material allocation to physiological destinations (grain), was not significantly different between the two cultivars. In addition, the growth period in Sajama cultivar was 32 days longer than Titicaca that resulted in water requirement increase, and subsequent crop cultivation delay, in Sajama cultivar. On the other hand, all the measured biochemical traits (total chlorophyll, carotenoids, total carbohydrates and soluble protein) in Titicaca cultivar were more than those of Sajama cultivar. Therefore, according to the results of this research, cultivation of Titicaca cultivar along with the application of bio fertilizers as supplements can be considered as an applied strategy to achieve higher quality crops and optimum use of chemical fertilizers to realize the goals of sustainable agriculture in quinoa cultivation.