Soil fertility diagnosis and analysis of the introduction of agricultural mechanization in Uru Chipayas families

Victor Fredy Mita Quisbert, Dominique Hervé

Abstract

The Uru-Chipayas families manage to cultivate quinoa, cañahua and potatoes through ancestral agricultural practices such as the distribution of community plots, the annual rotation of sectors destined for agricultural and livestock production, zero tillage, land flooding (lameo) and freezing weed. This research analyzes the introduction of mechanization in the area of the salt flats in the south-east of Bolivia and diagnoses the fertility of agricultural soils used for the production of traditional crops (quinoa, cañahua and potato) and non-traditional crops (onion, carrot and tarwi). Soil sampling was carried out at various sites more or less distant from the salar and from each river that flows into the salar for its physical-chemical analysis at the time of planting the crops. It was obtained in clay loam soils with varied levels of organic matter, low levels of assimilable phosphorus and high levels of salinity and sodicity; concluding that the proximity to the Coipasa salt flat, the low annual precipitation (250 mm), the salinity and the sodicity that affect the soils, limit the agricultural productivity of the soils of the Chipaya municipality. The state's endowment of the tractor and the disc plow to till the land has deficiencies, due to the lack of trained personnel and maintenance of the agricultural tractor. Disc-plow tillage is faster, but is less adapted to saline soils than no-tillage for quinoa sowing.