India, Aug. 23 -- Quinoa is not a true grain. It is technically a pseudo-cereal.

Unlike wheat, rice and barley, which are grains that grown on grasses, quinoa is the seed of a leafy plant of the same name in the amaranth family.

Still, just as grains have done in various civilisations, it has quietly sustained indigenous farmers. High in the Andes, it became a dependable, hearty source of nutrition about 5,000 years ago, surviving in regions where most other crops shrivelled away.

In the Inca civilisation, which stretched from the 12th century until the arrival of the Spanish in the early 1500s, it was so revered that it was nicknamed Chisaya Mama (Mother of all Grains). The Inca ruler would ceremonially plant the first seeds of the se...