LA PAZ, Bolivia — The growing global demand for quinoa by health food enthusiasts isn’t just raising prices for the Andean “super grain” and living standards among Bolivian farmers. Quinoa fever is running up against physical limits.

The scramble to grow more is prompting Bolivian farmers to abandon traditional land management practices, endangering the fragile ecosystem of the arid highlands, agronomists say.

Quinoa currently fetches as much as $3,200 a ton, up nearly threefold from five years ago – a surge fed by “foodies” making quinoa a hot health-food product based on its high content of protein and amino acids. It’s also gluten-free. Though used like a grain, quinoa is actually an edible seed.

The United Nations has designated 2013 as the International Year of Quinoa, and Bolivian President Evo Morales celebrated it in New York Wednesday along with Peru’s first lady, Nadine Heredia. Their countries are the world’s two biggest producers.

Quinoa has been cultivated in the Andean highlands since at least 3000 B.C., growing natively from Chile north to Colombia. It grows best at high altitudes in climates with cool days and even cooler nights.

In December, Morales mounted a tractor and plowed furrows into the soil of his highlands hometown, Orinoca, to promote quinoa as sowing season got under way. Townspeople sacrificed a llama to ask Pachamama, or Mother Earth, for a good harvest.