• Quinoa, a pseudocereal, has been grown in the Andes since pre-Hispanic times. The 2010-2014 quinoa boom benefited some farmers in the region, but intensified production also brought soil depletion, increased erosion and social conflicts.
• Climate change and shifts in regional weather patterns have also brought more frequent and irregular frosts, rains and heat, making quinoa production more difficult.
• Most of the Bolivian quinoa that’s exported is smuggled through Peru and sold as Peruvian, experts say, complicating efforts by Bolivian producers to benefit from using higher-quality seeds.
• Growers in Bolivia’s southern Altiplano, the Andean Plateau, are cultivating a premium variant of the crop in an effort to bypass middlemen and benefit from a price premium, but lack governmental support and direct access to markets.

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AROMA MARKA, Bolivia — The rolling hills around the town of Aroma Marka are a cacophony of colors: golden-yellow, deep-red and purplish-black quinoa pods smatter the otherwise barren landscape here in Bolivia’s southern Altiplano, the Andean Plateau.

At 3,800 meters (about 12,500 feet) above sea level, the Altiplano stretches across much of western Bolivia and into Peru, Chile and Argentina. Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) has been grown on the Altiplano since pre-Hispanic times, but it was only recently that the nutrient-dense pseudocereal was put on the global map, fueling a production boom in the Andes. Prices later tumbled as countries outside the region also began cultivating it.

Yet the striking scenery belies the lasting scars the 2010-2014 quinoa boom left in the region. At its height, sky-high prices triggered a production frenzy, drawing former residents back from cities to plant the “golden grain.” But Walter Canaviri, a quinoa producer and local leader, remembers that the sudden spike came at a cost. “Everyone wanted to produce more,” he told Mongabay. In the rush to capitalize on the moment, some growers encroached on neighbors’ lands, leading to disputes. “It was a sad time for this area because everyone turned against everyone,” he said.

While the quinoa boom brought a temporary boon for rural Andean Indigenous communities, it also came with the destruction of local ecosystems, soil degradation, and social conflict – all of which have been exacerbated by changes in regional weather patterns and global climate change. Though Bolivian producers like Canaviri are working to grow organic quinoa real — royal quinoa — in an effort to differentiate their crop from the smaller and less nutritious versions grown in other areas, most producers lack direct access to international markets, making it difficult to receive differentiated prices for their products.

The quinoa boom

Quinoa has been an Andean staple for millennia, but came under threat when Spanish colonizers prohibited the cultivation of native crops and pushed for their replacement by cereals like barley and wheat. Later, international aid organizations encouraged Bolivian farmers to plant wheat rather than native crops. Though it was still grown on a small scale, quinoa was long stigmatized as a food for rural Indigenous farmers.

Quinoa fields near the community of Aroma, Bolivia, in the Salinas de Garci Mendoza municipality. Image by Benjamin Swift.

Global interest in quinoa slowly grew in the 20th century, fueled by the crop’s adaptability and nutritional profile. Early trials reached Africa in the 1930s, followed by a commercial program in the U.S. in 1985. Quinoa’s profile reached new highs in 2013 when, at the suggestion of Bolivian President Evo Morales, the United Nations declared it the International Year of Quinoa, recognizing the seed’s potential role in “eradicating hunger, malnutrition and poverty.” Prices skyrocketed: after decades of hovering around $1 per kilogram (45 U.S. cents per pound), export prices peaked near $7/kg ($3.20/lb) in 2013.

Farmers across the Andes scrambled to meet the demand. “They reacted as anyone would, saying ‘this is our opportunity,’” Elizabeth Jiménez, an economist who studies quinoa production at the Higher University of San Andrés in La Paz, told Mongabay. As prices soared, many urban migrants returned to their rural birthplaces to plant quinoa, reshaping regional land use. Between 2013 and 2015, Bolivia’s quinoa production area doubled and Ecuador’s increased tenfold.

By 2015, prices had plummeted as quinoa was popularized and competition sprang up worldwide (as of 2018, the crop was grown in 123 countries, from the UAE to Russia). Many growers in Bolivia blame the International Year of Quinoa for globalizing the plant and driving down prices. “The fact that quinoa is grown around the globe makes it difficult for us,” farmer Cleto Mamani told Mongabay.

Quinoa’s brief surge brought benefits to some farmers, who used their earnings to buy machinery or access education. Then there are others, like grower and middleman Eduardo Calizaya Chiri, who told Mongabay he lost more than $140,000 when prices crashed before he could sell his stock.

While quinoa still sells for more than other Altiplano staples, like potatoes, its price has now stabilized far below the historic peak. But the region is still grappling with the impacts of the land-use change spurred by the seed’s global rise.

Quinoa’s lasting impacts

Traditionally, farmers here herded llamas, alpacas and sheep, using the manure as fertilizer for the small plots of quinoa that they cultivated for their own subsistence. But the “perverse incentive” during the boom prompted many to get rid of their livestock and expand their quinoa fields, Jiménez said. They also tended to use excessive amounts of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. In some regions, soils became depleted as farmers continued planting year after year.

As more land was dedicated to quinoa, native vegetation was cleared, degrading natural windbreaks and causing soil erosion. “The weather isn’t like it used to be,” Maura Condo Mendoza, who grows quinoa around Aroma Marka and near the southern Uyuni salt flats, told Mongabay. “Now the wind just levels the fields.”

Workers harvesting quinoa in Orispo Choque’s fields near the community of Aroma, Bolivia, in the Salinas de Garci Mendoza municipality. Image by Benjamin Swift.

Jiménez said that although farmers recognized the problems of intensifying quinoa monocultures, they saw them as a necessary compromise. “People didn’t know how long high prices would last, and it was the first time this crop was being valued on a global scale,” she said.

Though the intensity of quinoa production eased after prices crashed, it remains the most practical crop for many farmers, thriving even when other crops suffer from frost or drought. “Quinoa doesn’t need a lot of labor,” Marco Antonio Patiño Fernández, an agronomist at the Higher University of San Andrés, told Mongabay. “A sheep might cost 1,000 bolivianos [$145], and 100 pounds [45 kg] of quinoa costs the same,” he added. “Just think: how much more work does it take to raise that sheep?”

Challenges in a changing environment

On a rainy morning in late March, Cleto Mamani hurriedly cut stalks of quinoa and gathered them into golden piles that dotted the Altiplano for miles. “The rain is causing problems for us,” he said of the unseasonal precipitation. “When the quinoa gets wet it can start to go bad.”

Global climate change and shifts in regional weather patterns — driven in part by deforestation in the Amazon — are making conditions increasingly difficult for the 70,000 Bolivian families in the Altiplano who depend on the pseudocereal. Growers in the Aroma area told Mongabay that drought and high heat have become more common, stunting growth and decreasing yields. Rising soil salinity elsewhere also means that farmers must wash the soil yearly to reduce salt deposits, making agriculture more labor-intensive.

Cleto Mamani harvests his quinoa near the community of Aroma, on Bolivia’s Altiplano. Image by Benjamin Swift.

Though Bolivia’s rainy season typically runs from November to March, a recent study documented changes in Bolivian Altiplano wet season timing and intensity, and the region has seen a 15% reduction in precipitation between 2000 and 2025. Farmers in Aroma said they’re worried that this year’s late rains could cause quinoa seeds to sprout prematurely or rot. They also noted that more moisture could reduce the number of seeds that fall off dry quinoa stalks during harvest.

Drought also makes it difficult to properly maintain fallow fields. “There’s no fallow land — it hasn’t rained enough, so there’s nothing for next year,” said Condo Mendoza, adding that resting lands need moisture to be aerated. “Many people are saying they’re going to hold on to their current stock for next year,” when prices may rise, she added.

At the same time, unseasonal episodes of frost have grown more frequent. Between freezes and heavy winds, quinoa farmer Edgar Cruz Bonifacio said he expects to lose roughly 40% of this year’s harvest.

These shifts, along with intensified monocultures, biodiversity loss, growing pesticide resistance, and an absence of integrated pest management practices, have contributed to the emergence of at least 18 new pests afflicting quinoa, from parakeets to moths to quinoa mildew.

At 64, farmer Orispo Choque has seen these changes from up close. “Back when I was young, there weren’t so many pests, the rain was better, and the harvests were good,” he told Mongabay as he supervised day laborers harvesting his plot of land. “But over time, tractors showed up, and worms appeared too, and started infesting everything.”

Edgar Cruz Bonifacio holding recently harvested quinoa on his land near Aroma, Bolivia. Between freezes and heavy winds, he expects to lose roughly 40% of this year’s harvest. Image by Benjamin Swift.

In 2006, Choque sold his animals to begin planting quinoa across his entire 100-hectare (250-acre) farm, half of which he used to leave fallow every year. He now purchases manure from a neighbor.

As growers grapple with a changing Altiplano, some warn that Bolivia’s efforts to boost lithium mining could exacerbate existing pressures. Though state-run operations are currently limited, Indigenous communities around the Uyuni salt flats, where lithium is mined, have blamed the installation of some 20 wells for drying up the high-altitude wetlands, rendering agriculture nearly impossible. Gonzalo Mondaca, a lithium specialist at environmental nonprofit CEDIB, told Mongabay that more intensive mining would lower the water table and sap soil moisture, which could harm agriculture. “The impact on quinoa crops would perhaps be the first consequence,” he said.

Solutions and challenges for Bolivian quinoa

In 2006, Aroma community members founded the Association of Ecological Quinoa and Camelid Producers (APREQC) which aims to produce organic quinoa to access higher prices and avoid the risks of agrochemicals.

Many growers, including Choque, sell their quinoa through APREQC or personal contacts who offer a slight premium for the organic product. However, when demand via the association falters, many sell in the nearby Challapata Market, where buyers don’t differentiate between conventional and organic seeds. Much of this quinoa is then smuggled to Peru and exported as locally grown.

Roberto Choque, a quinoa buyer and middleman in Challapata, holds three varieties of the seed. Image by Benjamin Swift.

Organic farming is also becoming increasingly challenging. While it’s mandatory for cooperative members in Aroma, Condo Mendoza said that near Uyuni, the practice has become untenable. “If you don’t [spray chemical pesticides], the worms attack and leave the quinoa in a terrible state,” she said. While organic alternatives and regenerative methods exist, many growers say these are costly and not as effective as chemical pesticides.

Bolivian growers say they’re eager to bypass middlemen and sell directly to global markets. Their Royal Quinoa, produced in the mineral-rich soils surrounding the salt flats, boasts a larger grain and higher nutritional content than the varieties it’s blended with when exported through Peru. While Bolivia’s yields lag behind Peru’s, experts and growers say the quality of Royal Quinoa should set the Bolivian product apart. “What’s missing are public policies promoting exports,” said Patiño Fernández, the agronomist.

Despite the 2020 designation of two Royal Quinoa varieties with a protected designation of origin (PDO) label — similar to how Champagne can only come from a certain region of France — the economic benefits to farmers have not yet materialized. The designation was intended to safeguard the Altiplano’s unique varieties from foreign competition and validate their superior quality, but local growers say there’s been little change in demand.

“It’s nice to have a certification, but without the marketing and the enforcement, it’s not going to get you anything,” Tamara Stenn, a professor at Suffolk University in the U.S., who has studied fair-trade quinoa in Bolivia, told Mongabay. “The certification was supposed to build value for their quinoa, but that needs to be supported on a government level.”

Two ecotypes of Chinese quinoa at the Estación Experimental Patacamaya, where agronomist Marco Antonio Patiño Fernández studies the plants along with other varieties and ecotypes. Image by Benjamin Swift.

Many elements of the quinoa plant remain untapped, according to Patiño Fernández, such as the leaves, which boast a higher protein content by weight than the seeds. The research station where he works has also developed quinoa bars and cookies, which they hope could gain footing in the domestic market. Even saponin, the bitter coating that must be washed off the seeds before eating, has industrial potential: before multinational corporations dominated the Bolivian market, this byproduct was transformed into soaps and a toothpaste known as Quino-Dent.

As a lifelong quinoa farmer, Orispo Choque said he worries that environmental challenges will impact crop quality and productivity. “The heat is stronger and the rain is scarce,” he said, which could stunt growth and reduce quinoa supply as climate change worsens. “It seems we are already reaching that point,” he added.

But despite the barriers, Patiño Fernández said he’s hopeful. “I think a second stage for quinoa is possible,” he said. “But it has to be done with a sustainable focus.”

Banner image: Quinoa fields near the community of Aroma, Bolivia, in the Salinas de Garci Mendoza municipality. Image by Benjamin Swift.

Citations:

Bonifacio, A., Aroni, G., Villca, M., & Bentley, J. W. (2022). Recovering from quinoa: Regenerative agricultural research in Bolivia. Journal of Crop Improvement, 37(5), 687-708. doi:10.1080/15427528.2022.2135155

Angeli, V., Miguel Silva, P., Crispim Massuela, D., Khan, M. W., Hamar, A., Khajehei, F., … Piatti, C. (2020). Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.): An overview of the potentials of the “golden grain” and socio-economic and environmental aspects of its cultivation and marketization. Foods, 9(2), 216. doi:10.3390/foods9020216

Fundación de Biodiversidad Alimentaria. (2021). Quinua: Una historia de injusticias y contradicciones. Cuadernos Médico Sociales, 61(1), 75-81. doi:10.56116/cms.v61.n1.2021.28

Alandia, G., Rodriguez, J. P., Jacobsen, S.-E., Bazile, D., & Condori, B. (2020). Global expansion of quinoa and challenges for the Andean region. Global Food Security, 26, 100429. doi:10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100429

Vorsheva, A. V., & Kukharenkova, O. V. (2024). Quinoa — A new promising cereal crop for Russia, nutritional value, and cultivation history: A review. AgroEcoInfo, 1. doi:10.51419/202141131

Swift, B. (2025). As water levels recede, Indigenous communities and scientists collaborate to protect Lake Titicaca and its high-altitude endemic species. BioScience, 75(10), 791-798. doi:10.1093/biosci/biaf020

Milla, P., Espinoza, J.-C., Gutierrez-Villarreal, R., Molina-Carpio, J., Ronchail, J., Espinoza-Romero, D., & Junquas, C. (2025). Recent changes in the dry-to-wet transition season in the Andean Altiplano and related atmospheric circulation patterns (1981-2022). Climate Dynamics, 63(1). doi:10.1007/s00382-024-07578-4

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