Abstract

OSUNA-CEJA, Esteban Salvador; FIGUEROA-SANDOVAL, Benjamín; MARTINEZ-GAMINO, Miguel Ángel  and  PIMENTEL-LOPEZ, José. A rainfed agroforestry system for the semi-arid Altiplano of Mexico. Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc [online]. 2019, vol.10, n.spe22, pp.89-103. ISSN 2007-0934.  https://doi.org/10.29312/remexca.v0i22.1861.

In the semi-arid Altiplano of North-Central Mexico, soil erosion is one of the main problems affecting the sustainability of agricultural lands. As a result, yields and incomes are low and soil quality continues to decline. With the objective of developing an agroforestry exploitation system for the sustainable management of soils, a rainfed agroforestry system (SAF) was designed that included sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) of brown rib (bmr) and beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in rotation, nopal (Opuntia sp.) and leucaena (Leucocephala glauca) as an alternative to improved management of the agricultural production units, and not as another variant of the productive reconversion. The SAF was evaluated in the Experimental Site ‘Sandovales’, Aguascalientes, during 2014 and 2015, under restrictive environmental conditions, with 344 and 320 mm of precipitation in the cultivation cycles to prove that it is sustainable, since it favors the conservation and fertility of the soil and the use of rainwater. The average yield of sorghum planted in bed with six rows was 6.33 t ha-1 of MS, that of the bean of the varieties Flor de Junio Dalia, Pinto Saltillo, Pinto Centenario, Flor de Mayo Dolores and Azufrado 2, in four rows was 2.03, 1.80, 1.74, 1.34 and 0.60 t ha-1 grain. It is concluded that it is possible to implement a SAF of sustainable productivity, where sorghum and rainfed beans are included in a crop rotation. The proposed SAF offers technically efficient options for erosion control in rainfed agriculture, with low productivity.

Keywords : Opuntia sp.; Leucocephala glauca; agroecosystem; aqueel; live barriers; pooling.

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