Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
5
ROOT CROPS
5.1
ROOT CROPS ON THE THREE FARMS
On the three farms Donio grows two kinds of root crops but only on land around the
edge of his farms, A
´
da and Octavio grow potato as their major crop, and Steve does
not grow any root crop. Donio grows a kind of sweet potato, which is also called
boniato and locally called camote. He also grows gabe (taro). Both are grown on
land surrounding his house and along the edges of his fields; see Figure 5.1. In addition
to harvesting the tubers, the leaves of camote are harvested, boiled, and eaten as a veg-
etable component of the main part of a meal. He uses cuttings from already established
plants to produce new plants, but otherwise he does nothing to cultivate this crop. Root
crops being sold in the market in Baybay, Philippines, near where Donio farms is shown
in Figure 5.2.
On the Ecuador farm A
´
de and Octavio grow two varieties of potato, Cecilia and
Catalina (Fig. 5.3) as their major crop, on a 1-ha portion of their main field close to their
house and produce two crops a year. The area planted to potatoes is rotated between
maize, small grains, and legume crops, but this is the only crop for which outside
inputs—seed, fertilizers, and chemicals—are purchased in the nearby small town.
All planting, harvesting, and transport out of the field is done by hand owing to the
