Abstract
Field experiments were carried out in the Chuvash Republic, which is located in the center of the European part of Russia on the banks of the Volga River and has a moderately continental climate with warm summers, cold winters, well-defined transitional seasons and average annual rainfall of 500 mm. There are many cultural and wild species of amaranth in nature, differing in morphological and biological features. The objects of research were four common species of amaranth (Amaranthus spp.): A. cruentus L., A. caudatus L., A. hybridus L., A. spinosus L.. Particular attention in the experiment was paid to the morphological and biological characteristics of plants according to the growth stages during growing season and the formation of the yield of green mass and grain during 3 years of research. As a result of the experiment, the possibility of cultivating a heat-loving amaranth culture in the climatic conditions of the Chuvash Republic was proved and adaptive species for growing green mass (A.cruentus and A.caudatus) and for grain (A.cruentus) were identified.
Highlights
Agriculture faces a great pressure to produce greater quantities of food, feed and biofuel on declining land resources for the projected nine billion people on the planet by 2050 (Godfray et al, 2010)
A. hybridus was distinguished by the longest duration of the growing season and did not have time to grow to full flowering due to higher requirements for temperature (Costea et al, 2001)
The climatic conditions of the Chuvash Republic allow growing all amaranth species for fresh green biomass but considering the early onset of frost it is preferable to grow species with a shorter growing season (A. cruentus, A. caudatus)
Summary
Agriculture faces a great pressure to produce greater quantities of food, feed and biofuel on declining land resources for the projected nine billion people on the planet by 2050 (Godfray et al, 2010). In recent years producers and consumers have been interested in new plant species, which are referred as alternative plants or new crops. Whether they are new or just recently rediscovered, these species create valuable crude material for a number of industrial branches but they constitute an important source of renewable energy. They add to the human menu, making it more diverse (Rastogi & Shukla, 2013). Nutrition value and use of grain amaranth is a potential future application in bread making (Mlakar et al, 2009)
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