Since Pre-Colombian time corn already formed part of the diet in Aztec and Mayan cultures, and actually represented in them a fountain of wealth and power. The cultivation is utilized in the region in multiple forms, not only for the human diet, but also as feed for animals. Corn is third place in the world production, following wheat and rice. It is cultivated in a total surface of 106 million hectares, its yield is 215 million tons, that represents an average of 2 tons per hectare. The cultivation of corn has special importance, given that this cereal constitutes the basic food the Latin-Americans. This cereal adapts extensively to diverse ecological conditions. Its high performance and future possibilities of even more improvement through genetics make this cereal one of the plants most promising to confront the threat of hunger in the world. For this reason, it is cultivated in almost every part of the world because of its ample range of elevations. It can grow from sea level to approximately 2500 meters. In the last few years, the world production of corn has grown an average of 3.2% per year, set against 1.1% of semi-annual growth, for surface sown. This difference comes from a strong increase of the average unit yield. This was possible thanks to use of highly productive hybrid corn, with the aid of improve agricultural techniques, such as greater plantation density, more resilient, uses of more effective pesticides and herbicides, etc. In Bolivia, the agriculture area has large potential to develop, but because of political causes not appropriate for our country, and the insufficient economic resources that destines the area to stay rural, these negative aspects are responsible for the backward movement and the misery, making it impossible to develop the agriculture area. The region of Cochabamba, constitutes the main supplier of food. In the country, the economic activity of the valleys are based mainly in agriculture and stockbreeding, being characterized as a growing zone and basically for cereal, whose preferential scale of cultivation is as continues: Corn, wheat, barley, alfalfa, and other. The population of Cochabamba varies because of the growing of corn is only in the seasons of summer and part of the fall, the rest of the time few people stay there. The farmers, to obtain better prices, try to harvest at the start and end of the growing seasons, this is possible when they make a good management of plant's health, irrigation, and soil. etc., due to the smaller effort, the prices are higher, but in the months of February and March is when the effort pays off, because almost all of the farmers harvest, and the prices of this product drops, many times even below the price of production, being consequence of the dry culture. The price of fresh corn on the cob is greater than dry corn. When corn is fresh it has different uses such as humitas, lawas and corn on the cob. El Valle Alta (Punata), the farmers do not market their produce in the markets, despite of the small farms of the area, for this cause merchants truckers exist that gather the produce of all the farmers, and take the majority of the profits, which is why it is necessary for industrialization of the agricultural production. The vegetables are directly or indirectly the source of all the food, because they are capable of using solar energy and to carry out diverse chemical synthesis, that cannot be performed by animals. The principles of the same they are photosynthesis, which consists of the application of the solar energy, to synthesize carbohydrates, and the fixation of nitrogen, which is the foundation for the synthesis of the proteins. The vegetables most consumed are the cereals, legumes, and tubers, they constitute the basic diet. The word ""vegetable"" includes an extensive range of vegetables, and the majority of the vegetables contain at most 60%-80% of the water.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BGMYU2/oai:scholarsarchive.byu.edu:etd-6330 |
| Date | 01 January 2001 |
| Creators | Bautista, Marina Caballero |
| Publisher | BYU ScholarsArchive |
| Source Sets | Brigham Young University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Coverage | Cochabamba (Bolivia) |
| Rights | http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/ |
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