Agriculture and tutoring

Importance of Agriculture and Tutoring

Agriculture is one of the most important activities for human beings, since we as a society obtain from it the food we consume. In this way our ancestors began harvesting the fruits that once grew wild in nature,and then moved to the science of agriculture, and the processes of management and availability of crops.

         Archeological data show that there are two ancient zones with the most antiques remains of cultivated crops, that can be catalogued as the center of agriculture.  One known as Rising Fertile in the Middle East which it seems to be already cultivating 11,000 years ago, while on the other side of the world what is known as Mesoamerica (specifically the area of central Mexico) where agricultural practices may have begun 9 or 10000 years ago.

            In agriculture it is necessary to handle effectively the necessary conditions for each crop to grow optimally and yield as much fruit as possible. Domestication is a process during which certain plant characteristics are carefully picked, like fruit size, color, taste, etc. Also resilience to plagues or diseases.  As time went by and the handling of agricultural techniques evolved and improved, wild crops changed to become the varieties we know and consume today.

  In modern times crops as tomato, chili pepper or cucumber, due to their fruit size and weight required support (tutor) that allowed the branches not to break, but also prevented them from getting stained or develop a diseases due to pathogen agents that develop in humid ecosystems. Tutoring also allows better leaves´ aeration and solar exposition. Before the 60´s the way to tutor crops was to use Raffia or Henequen, however in that very decade in Europe, they began to use a polypropylene net, that substituted the raffia function (Tutoring), while reducing laboring cost, both in installation and in cultivation.

Tutoring crops as Solanaceae may seem a bit illogical, but is definitely not because this kind of plant needs guidance, taking into account that the final purpose of all vegetable plantation is to yield as much production with the best quality. Tutoring chili peppers or tomatoes using a double net on both sides of the furrow (In “V” form or sandwich) will prevent stalk bending due to fruit weight, stains from touching the soil, wind damaging, and also will allow foliar fertilizing to be easier and cheaper.

Biol. Enrique Chavarín

Literatura consultada

1.- Casas, A. y J, Caballero. (1995, Octubre-Diciembre). Domesticación de plantas y origen de la agricultura en Mesoamérica. Revista Ciencias. Núm. 40. P.p. 36-40.

2.- Raya-Pérez, J.C., Aguirre-Mancilla, C.L., Gil-Vega, K., & Simpson, J. (2010). La domesticación de plantas en México: comparación de la forma cultivada y silvestre de Byrsonima crassifolia (Malpighiaceae). Polibotánica, (30), 239-256. Recuperado en 22 de septiembre de 2015, de http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1405-27682010000200013&lng=es&tlng=es.