Criteria on local management for the chayote (Sechium edule Jacq. Sw) crop in rural areas of Chiapas, México

Abstract

This article describes the farmers�?? criteria for chayote (Sechium edule Jacq. Sw.) crop management in rural areas of the municipalities of Villa Corzo and Villaflores, Chiapas, Mexico. The study was based on a socio-anthropological analysis, following ethnoagronomy and ethnobotany approaches, in order to gather and systematize the traditional knowledge. Semi-structured interviews to 30 farmers were applied from each municipality in order to collect criteria about key activities regarding crop management such as pruning, irrigation, plant tutoring and fertilization. The results show that 40 % of all the famers from both municipalities prune their plants, those from Villa Corzo use machetes while those from Villaflores use pruning scissors. The 91 % of the farmers use tutors made of local resources like stems and branches trees, demonstrating they have incorporated this practice into their local knowledge. The tendency of using fertilizers, either chemical or organic ones is incipient for both locations, slightly above inVillaflores for the use of chemical fertilizers where almost a third of the farmers use it. In both municipalities the rate of farmers using organic fertilizers is low and represents only 11,5 and 18 % respectively for Villa Corzo and Villaflores. This confirms the validity of socio-agronomic studies, in particular for understanding traditional knowledge and the use of local resources in chayote crop managing.