PEASANT MANAGEMENT OF HORTI-FLORISTIC SYSTEM: CASE STUDY

Abstract

The management of agricultural production systems alters the properties of the soil and affects its functionality. To measure changes and their intensity, tools sensitive to the function to be measured are required. The objectives of this work were: to know the agricultural history of the area, defining classes of land according to the peasants, identifying the current production systems and their management, as the basis for selecting appropriate soil quality indicators. Soil quality indicators provide objective quantitative information on the intensity of change due to land use, and its effect on the functionality of productive systems. We propose to incorporate the empirical knowledge of producers, collected through interviews, application of surveys and direct observation. This is an intermediate approach of a qualitative nature, as complement to the traditional technical-scientific used for this purpose. The case study was carried out in four Ejidos in Tepeaca, state of Puebla, (Mexico) with the collection of historical information about the incorporation of land to cultivation and irrigation. In workshops and surveys with the ejidatarios (the Ejido peasant producers), the following quality variables were defined: types of soils, changes of use in the last half century, past and present cultivation patterns, and management of current horticultural and floricultural production systems. The soils of the area have been managed since before the colony and, in the middle of the last century, only with the cultivation of “milpa”. The production of vegetables and cut flowers has been intense in the last 50 years. The cultivation history of soils in these ejidos is a unique historical record in the country, depicting the influence of anthropic activity on their characteristics. Producers identify three classes of lands: Dark, Nextlales, and Strong-sands. The most frequent land use patterns are: 1) cut flowers, 2) vegetables on continue rotation, and 3) vegetables with land rest in the dry season. The integration of the knowledge of the farmers with the technicians, allowed to obtain an expanded vision of the impact of anthropic activities in the region. Documentation of changes in production systems, and soils will serve as the basis for formulating the appropriate soil quality indicators for those conditions.