Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
includes farming, silviculture, aquaculture and any other production system
based on the raise and care of a living organism (FAO 2009).
Agriculture
This part only refers to industrial agriculture, which is characterized by
being highly mechanized, intensively fertilized, weeded, and pest- and
disease-ridden with chemical products, mostly harmful to the environment
and wildlife. The other agriculture, more akin to the principles of
agroecology (Altieri 1996), is here considered as an ecosystem service and
it is denominated 'food and fi ber'. Industrial agriculture thrives in the
valleys belonging to the Hill and Valley Scrubland, and in those in between
Puna
and the
Yungas
. In the drier (western) areas in NOA agriculture is
economically feasible exclusively under irrigation. The region shared 28%
of the national irrigated area in 2002 (INDEC 2011).
a) NOA
In this region the provinces with the largest proportion of farmland area
under irrigation in 2002 were Catamarca and La Rioja. The system of
gravitational (or fl ood) irrigation is the most common in the region; it was
used in 68% of the irrigated area compared to either sprinkler or localized
irrigation, which were each used in 16% of the irrigated areas. Gravitation
irrigation was mostly used in Salta and Jujuy; sprinkler irrigation was the
main system in Tucumán and Catamarca, and localized irrigation was the
preferred system in La Rioja.
Each province had a preferred combination of cropping systems under
irrigation (Table 21.1).
Table 21.1.
Cropping systems (grayed cells) which took up with at least 75% of the area under
irrigation in the NOA region in 2002 (data from INDEC 2011).
Cropping
system
Province
Jujuy
Salta
Tucumán
Catamarca
La Rioja
sugarcane
tobacco
vegetables
orchards
cereals
oilseeds
forages
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