 |
|
Amaranth, a Promising Food Crop
Agriculturists believe amaranth is the most promising cereal crop to come along in recent years. Amaranth is a plant whose name comes from a Greek word meaning "unfading " Some agriculturists believe the plant can be grown commercially in many environments to help to feed a hungry world.
It is not a new idea to grow amaranth as a foodstuff. In Mexico during the 16-th century, the Aztecs cultivated it. The plant was an important part of their diet. It has been shown that the Aztecs harvested close to 6000 metric tons of the grain each year. However, when Cortes and his Spanish army invaded Mexico they destroyed the crop completely. Today only a few wild and uncultivated species of amaranth exist and it is rarely used as a food in Mexico. It has been discovered that amaranth is a highly nutritious food. The plant's seed is high in protein and it contains an important amino acid called lysine. Amino acids are organic compounds that are the building blocks of protein. Lysine is an essential amino acid that is missing in wheat, rice, and corn. The leaves of some varieties compare in taste and nutritional value with spinach and other vegetable greens.
Amaranth can be ground into flour and made into baked goods. Bread made from amaranth is heavy and very compact when compared with the light and airy bread common in North America. The flour can also be used for cakes, cookies and crackers as well as high-protein breakfast cereals and snack foods.
It is true that breeding a wild plant into a major food crop such as wheat requires much research time. Agriculturists know that it has taken hundreds of years of breeding different varieties of corn to get the kinds we have today. Presently there are several problems in growing amaranth as a crop. Because it is a wild plant it is hard to predict the date when the crop will be ready to be harvested. It is also impossible to know the expected height of the individual plants or the yield of a given amount of seed. It is important for economic reasons to breed a plant of uniform height and one that can be harvested at a specific time each year.
Plant researchers are now working on developing new hybrids. A hybrid is an offspring resulting from the crossing of parent plants differing in hereditary traits. The hybrid is more vigorous or stronger than either parent. Researchers want to develop a hybrid that is resistant to disease and insect pests and at the same time provides a high yield of grain per hectare.
The hybrid must also be adaptable to a wide range of environmental conditions. A hybrid that matures in three months or less would extend the possibility of growing amaranth in cold areas with short growing seasons.
Some farm experts feel that selling the amaranth grain commercially may not be easy. Wheat is still the major crop demanded by most countries. Many questions arise about the feasibility of amaranth cultivation. How much will it cost to grow and harvest amaranth?
Does the crop require special machinery to harvest it? Will a new grain be acceptable to people who are accustomed to consuming other grains? It will be some time before we have answers to all these questions.
Amaranth may be the kind of high protein grain that poorer countries need to feed people who go hungry every day. Amaranth is a hardy plant so in countries that are short of an adequate food supply, amaranth is the foodstuff of the future.
The Roots
Roots frequently make up one-half, or even more, of the weight of crop plants. The main functions of the roots are to anchor the plant and absorb water and plant nutrients from the soil.
All roots are alike in that they end in a rather hard pointed portion about a quarter of an inch long called the root cap. It is by means of this root cap that the young, tender root forces its way between the soil particles. The lengthening of the root takes place just back of the root cap rather than along the entire length, the root being in the soil. A fine, mellow soil is important in that it allows the roots to grow freely, as it is more easily penetrated by them.
Just back of the root cap are small rootlets, or root hairs ,which are feeding roots of the plant. It is through those hairs that the plant absorbs water and nutrients from the soil. The root hairs come into very close contact with the soil particles, as would be found, if a plant were dug up and the earth were washed from the roots carefully. It would be very hard to remove all the fine particles of soil from these root hairs , so closely do they cling. Wherever contact with a solid body is made, a special substance develops on the outside of the cell wall of the root hairs causing a very close contact between them and the soil particles, which makes possible a rapid absorption of moisture and nutrient materials. Root hairs may be an inch long, thought they are usually much less. They are short-lived, old ones dying and new ones forming continually. As the root gets older, root hairs cease to form.