Abstract

JIMENEZ CORDOVA, Anabel et al. Agroecological suitability for the sugarcane crop in southern Tamaulipas, Mexico. Invest. Geog [online]. 2004, n.53, pp.58-74. ISSN 2448-7279.

The main objective of the present research was to estimate the potential zones for the sugarcane crop in the southern region of the State of Tamaulipas, Mexico, from an agroecological point of view. The delimitation of these zones were generated by the implementation of a Geographical Information System (GIS) that facilitate the manipulation and overlay of thematic information layers, correspondent to information about weather, soils, and biophysical needs of the crop. As a first result, the agroclimatical zoning was determined, based on the estimation of the satisfaction index of the hydric needs and the growing degrees days. In order to get these indexes, daily information of 30 weather stations (period 1960-1999) was analyzed. To obtain the agroecological zoning, information on Units, Phases, Textures and soil Slopes was classified, in function of the crop aptitude to these variables and using the overlay and their algebra with the agroclimatical zoning, in this way potential zones for the crop were fixed. From the total of the evaluated surface (1 454 794.1 ha), 30.6% (446 021.0 ha) was classified as Very Apt (VA), 9.9% (145 104.9 ha) as Apt (A), whose restrictions were soil units, 0.03% (559.5 ha) was classified as marginally Apt (mA), with restrictions on the soils slopes; the rest, 59.5% (863 108.9 ha) correspond to No Apt (NA) for the studied crop.

Keywords : Sugarcane; agroclimatical zoning; agroecological zoning; geographical information system; map algebra.

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