Grant: Engage Grants Program

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) is a crop growing in popularity due to its high protein and mineral content,health benefits and gluten-free characteristics. In Canada, market demand has led to rapidly increasingcultivation of quinoa well beyond its traditional range, and the growth of the Northern Quinoa Corporation.Concurrent with this increased propagation and production, NorQuin and associated quinoa producers haveencountered increasing pest pressures, particularly from the goosefoot groundling moth, Scrobipalpaatriplicella. This pest attacks stems of plants in early season, and seeds later in the year, producing twofoldlosses in production and making products unmarketable. Heavily infested fields in Saskatchewan haveexperienced up to 100% crop losses. For NorQuin to better monitor and manage this pest species this projectwill identify the naturally-occurring female sex pheromone of S. atricplicella for development of apheromone-based trap monitoring system. By having such tools in place, we can develop reduced-riskstrategies for management of this pest species while minimizing application of insecticides.