INTENSIFICATION OF MILPA IN THE STATE OF MEXICO: NET INCOMES, FOOD SECURITY AND LAND EQUIVALENT RATIO

Abstract

The historical milpa has contributed to food security of small farmer families due to its
biodiversity. The objective was to evaluate indicators of food access [basic food baskets (BFB),
minimum wages (MW) and real food security index (RFSI)], Land Equivalent Ratio (LER), and
maximum net income (NI) obtained from the polyculture of native maize-husk tomato-squash
in two farm plots in the State of Mexico. The experiment was set up in San Pedro del Rosal (SPR)
and San Juan Coajomulco (SJC), irrigated and rainfed, respectively, in the spring-summer cycle
2020. An experimental design in divided plots was used to evaluate two topological patterns:
two rows of maize intercalated with one row of tomato and one of squash (MMTS) and one row
of maize intercropped with one of husk tomato, one of maize and one of squash (MTMS). Five
levels of fertilization with nitrogen, phosphorus and manure were tested. LER was evaluated
with the yields of the three species in MMTS, MTMS and in monocropping at the same levels
of inputs. BFB, MW, and RFSI were estimated using the regression equation that resulted in the
maximum NI. In the two localities, the intercalated crops had higher LER than the monocrops.
Comparing the two topological intercropping patterns, the maximum NI was obtained with
MTMS in SJC and SPR (MXN $ 113 686.30 and MXN $ 204 649.70 ha-1 y-1). With the NI of the
MTMS pattern in SJC and SPR, seven and 14 people, respectively, can be provided with BFB for
a year. The highest daily MW were obtained with MTMS. In terms of land equivalent ratio, the
highest LER were obtained with the MMTS pattern in SJC (2.78) and SPR (1.64). In economic
terms, the better topological pattern is MTMS, and in function of LER, MMTS was better.