Global food security faces the challenges of rapid population growth and shortage of water resources. Drought, heat waves and soil salinity are becoming more frequent and extreme due to climatic changes in many regions of the world, and resulting in yield reduction of many crops. It is hypothesized that quinoa has the potential to grow under a range of abiotic stresses, tolerating levels regarded as stresses in other crop species. Therefore cultivation of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) could be an alternative option in such regions.

Even though quinoa is more tolerant to abiotic stress than most other crops, its productivity declines under severe drought, high salt conditions and harsh climate conditions. Different management approaches including water-saving irrigation methods (such as deficit irrigation, DI and alternate root-zone drying irrigation, ARD), inoculating crop seeds with plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) and priming seed (such as with saponin) were involved to improve drought and salinity stress and climate adaptability in quinoa. During PhD research, the effect of theses strategies on physiological and agronomic characteristics of quinoa were studied in detail.