Agroclimátic zoning strawberry crops (Fragaria chiloensis L.), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata L.) in the department Chalatenango, El Salvador

Abstract

The research was carried out in the department of Chalatenango, El Salvador, from October 2017 to May 2018. It consisted of carrying out an agroclimatic zoning study to delimit suitable or potential areas for strawberry, lettuce and cabbage. The methodology was developed in three phases: the first phase consisted of gathering physical-chemical information on the soils, topography and climate of the department and the edaphoclimatic requirements of the crops under study. The information collected was scarce, which is why less variables were used in the second phase, including: precipitation, temperature, solar brightness, slope, altitude and texture. Subsequently, in the third phase, the Multi-Criteria (EMC) evaluation method was used, with three criteria: not acceptable (1), acceptable (2) and favorable (3). With the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tool, numbers were used, and as a result a set of three codes was obtained corresponding to the variables: slope, altitude and temperature. Seven meteorological stations were used in the temperature variable, with averages of thirty years (1985-2015) and this was interpolated with the inverse distance weighting method (IDW). In the agroclimatic zoning maps by crop, the favorable areas for the establishment and development of these crops were selected for the entire department of Chalatenango. The results of the favorable areas were: 607 hectares (Ha) (0.5%) of lettuce, 829 Ha (0.7%) of strawberry and 1,319 Ha (1.5%) of cabbage. San Ignacio and La Palma are the municipalities with the highest vegetable production in the department of Chalatenango. In the fieldwork, surveys were carried out with the producers of lettuce and cabbage in the cantons of Las Pilas, municipality of San Ignacio and Los Planes, municipality of La Palma, with the aim of validating the information of the areas producing the crops. under study with agroclimatic zoning maps. The methodology is valid for the agroclimatic zoning of crops, but can be improved with more soil information in the area.