Abstract

JASSO-MIRANDA, Maricarmen; SORIA-RUIZ, Jesús  and  ANTONIO-NEMIGA, Xanat. Loss of cultivated areas of rainfed corn due to frosts in the Toluca valley. Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc [online]. 2022, vol.13, n.2, pp.207-222.  Epub Aug 01, 2022. ISSN 2007-0934.  https://doi.org/10.29312/remexca.v13i2.2587.

Corn production in the State of Mexico is of great importance, however; this crop is affected by some elements of the climate, mainly frosts. In the Rural Development District of Toluca (DRRT), due to its location and altitude, frequent periods of frosts are recurrently recorded, which inhibit the growth, development and physiological maturity of corn. The objective of this work was to analyze the geospatial behavior of frosts in the cultivation of rainfed corn of the spring-summer 2019 agricultural cycle in the DDRT. With tools of Geographic Information Systems and remote sensing, the causes and effects that this phenomenon causes to the cultivation of corn in the Toluca Valley were determined. To this end, a monitoring of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and an analysis of minimum temperatures were carried out; all this to identify the period with frosts that caused losses in 3 511 ha of corn. Statistical technique was applied to determine that the altitude, minimum temperature and frequency of cold days are related to the manifestation of frosts. These variables as a whole made it possible to identify susceptible areas with different levels of frost risks in the study area.

Keywords : Zea mays L.; damaged area; freezing temperatures; natural disasters; State of Mexico.

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