Dr. Lori Hoagland, Brenton Smith, Miné van der Berg, and Rosa Cossio from Purdue travelled to the Colca Valley in Peru with three professors from Universidad Nacional de San Agustín (UNSA) Dr. Dennis Macedo, Dr. Victor Hugo Casa Coila, and Dr. René Gonzalo Quispe Castro. The team visited their research plots in three different communities with treatments aimed at supporting transition to organic production and dealing with soil heavy metal contamination.
During the visits, the team took root, fruit and pest samples, and quantified disease and pest pressure in the plots. The team then had the opportunity to visit Peru’s National Institute of Agrarian Innovation (INIA) research station in Puno, Peru, where they house and research over 1000 successions of quinoa, to develop collaborations.
