Guide to Cultivating Cassava, Sweet Potato, Jojoba, and Rice in Bolivia
Cassava: Origin, Importance, and Cultivation
Origin and Importance
Cassava, also known as yuca or manioc, is a starchy root vegetable native to the Americas. It has two main origins: the Pacific slope of Mexico and Central America, and the other from Paraguay, Brazil, and Bolivia. Cassava starch is widely used in culinary, industrial, and medical applications.
Cassava
The edible part of the cassava crop is in the roots, which contain plenty of starch in the xylem.
Soil Preparation
Cassava is grown in loamy or sandy loam soils.
Planting
Cassava is planted using stems and branches, cut into 20 to 30 cm pieces. These pieces can be planted directly in the soil, ensuring that 4 to 5 knots lie within the earth. It is advisable to make grooves spaced 1 to 1.5 meters apart. Then, drive the stakes into the ground, leaving 1 to 2 knots loose out of the ground and at 0.5 to 1 meter. Using about 10,000 cassava cuttings per hectare, you can apply 17-17-17 fertilizer at the rate of 2 to 3 bags during the planting season, depending on soil fertility.
Selection and Protection of Cuttings
The quality of planting material is crucial for the success of vegetatively multiplied crops. This factor is essential in production, responsible not only for good crop establishment (rooting of cuttings and sprouting buds) but also for its health and production (number of commercial roots per plant) per unit area in each cycle.
Criteria for Selecting Planting Material:
- Separate stakes from the most productive plants.
- Choose cuttings free of pests and diseases.
- Use twigs (sticks) that are ripe for 8-12 months. If they are over one and a half years old, it is advisable to take the top cuttings.
- Avoid cuttings with a mixture of fungicides and insecticides.
- Minimize storage.
Features of Stakes for Sowing
- Diameter greater than half the diameter of the thickest portion of the stem.
- Length between 15 and 20 cm (depending on variety).
- Number of nodes per stake of 5 to 7 (depending on the variety).
- Cross sections.
Weed Control
Timely weeding with hoes or sores is necessary before the month and 3 months. Hoeing or enhancement is required to allow thickening of the roots.
Crop Rotation
Cassava production is characterized by its ability to grow in acid and poor soils. It is often the last crop planted in a rotation program due to its ability to produce despite the lack of nutrients from poor soils.
Harvest
The crop can be harvested after 9 months or more. Plants are harvested using picks and plows. The roots are separated from the stem and carried quickly to the market before they blacken.
Yield
The minimum yield is 10,000 kgs per hectare. In good performance, 45,000 kgs per hectare can be achieved.
Pests and Diseases
Pests:
- Lepidoptera
Diseases:
- Botrytis: Attacks the stem and leaves.
- Oidium Cercospora caribae: Whitish spots on leaves.
- Leaf rust
Varieties
- Mojeno
- Wet pink
- White
- Mandima white
- Purple
Sweet Potato: Origin, Importance, and Cultivation
Origin and Significance
Sweet potato, also known as camote, is a plant native to America. It is an excellent food source, rich in sugars and starches, providing high energy intake, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and vitamins C, A, B1, and B12.
Climate and Soil
- Temperature: 20°C to 10°C (misbehaves below 10°C).
- Soil: Sandy clay, clay soils are very rocky and poor, resulting in deformed crops and potatoes. The pH should be between 5.6 and 6.5.
Planting
Sweet potato can be propagated using branches and shoots or through planting of small potatoes. For branches, use 40,000 pieces of groove pieces with at least 6 knots each. The distances are: 0.20 to 0.30 meters in the groove and 0.80 to 0.90 meters between rows. When using small seed potatoes, place them at a distance of 0.40 meters in the groove and 0.80 to 0.90 meters between drills. This requires 250 to 400 kilos per hectare.
Cultivation
Cuttings sprout rapidly when there is sufficient moisture and will require frequent watering in the first stage. After that, only auxiliary irrigation is needed. Other cultivation practices include weeding, earthing, marras replenishment, weed control, and air overdevelopment.
Crop Alternatives
Sweet potato can be rotated with other crops, such as yam, once a year, once every two years, three years, or more, depending on economic conditions. A 1:2:3 fertilizer balance is recommended in doses of 270 kg of nutrients per hectare.
Irrigation
Three or four irrigations are sufficient during the four or five months of the crop’s growth.
Harvest and Yield
Sweet potato is harvested between 110 and 180 days after planting. The yield is 15 to 30 tons per hectare.
Collection and Conservation
Five or six months after planting, you can begin to collect the potatoes. For conservation, sweet potato tubers are arranged in layers in a ventilated room at 11-15°C and a humidity of 80-85%.
Jojoba: Origin, Importance, and Cultivation
Origin and Significance
Jojoba is native to the Sonora desert in Northern Mexico and South America. Its oil is used in pharmaceutical products, as an excellent defoamer for penicillin production, for coating, and in other remedies. Through chemical hydrolysis, isomerization, sulfides, or chlorides, jojoba oil can be transformed into various ingredients for pharmaceuticals, plastics, textiles, adhesives, printing inks, varnishes, linoleum, waterproofing, coatings, candles, acids, waxes, etc.
Climate and Soil
- Soil: The most suitable soils are fertile, deep, as the root can reach up to 14 meters deep. The plant can last for 100 years.
- Temperature: 20°C to 30°C. With good moisture, seeds germinate in 20 days at 300 to 400 meters.
Sowing Methods
In our conditions, although direct seeding can be done by placing 2 to 3 seeds per hole, it is more prudent to produce nursery plants in polyethylene pouches of 30 cm or more long. Plant them a year after they are lignified to avoid frost. Distances should be 3 meters x 1.5 meters.
Cultivation
Jojoba is a very rustic plant, not known for any significant diseases. Cultural work refers only to weeding with two tents per year, which helps ensure aeration of the roots. 14 to 16 months after planting, the first flowers appear, where you can easily identify male and female plants. For roughing and the male surplus, stop female productive eight plants by pollinating male.
Harvest
A year and eight months into the fifth year, commercial production is established, with thirty kilos per plant after 30 years.
Yield
The expected returns are 1.5 to 5 kg per plant in the sixth year, reaching 2760 kilos per hectare. This can rise to 9200 kilos per hectare in plants over 10 years.
Rice: Origin, Importance, and Cultivation in Bolivia
Origin and Importance
Rice originated in tropical and subtropical Asia. In Bolivia, the most suitable areas for rice cultivation are in the Department of Santa Cruz.
Research and Culture of Rice in Bolivia
Since 1989, Mr. Toyozo Tanaka, a JICA Expert Engineer in rice cultivation, has been conducting intense and dedicated work towards improving rice cultivation in Bolivia.
Economic Importance and Geographic Distribution
Globally, rice ranks second after…
Pedological Requirements
- Temperature: Germination requires a minimum of 10 to 13°C. The optimal temperature is between 30 and 35°C. Above 40°C, germination is affected.
- Soil: Sandy to clay. The optimum pH for rice is 6.6.
Nutrient Requirements
The average nutrient requirement per ton of rice is 100 ud K2O.
Site Preparation
The slope should not exceed one per thousand. At the end of winter, prepare the site using a moldboard plow or cultivator with hooks.
Seeding
The amount of seed used should result in an optimal number of tillers per square meter for each variety, producing spikes that ripen as evenly as possible. For varieties with dense and thick panicle stem cuts, the optimal number of tillers per square meter is estimated at 250-300. For varieties with long and open, thin panicle stems, this number should be between 300-350.
Cultural Work
While stems are implanted and growing, the work to perform is reduced with irrigation and the application of herbicides and pesticides. Irrigation must be carefully managed to ensure the water level is at the proper height in relation to plant development. As the plant grows, reduce these levels to allow better growth and respiration of leaves. They must”ta” above the water.
Watering
The irrigation systems used in rice fields vary from static systems to recycle and water collection systems.
Weeds
Competition from weeds in rice varies with the type of crop, planting method, variety, and cultivation techniques (soil preparation, seeding, fertilizing, etc.).
Wild Rice
Wild rice is one of the main problems of rice cultivation, along with weed control.
Algae Control
Microscopic and macroscopic algae are present in flooded rice fields, living in associations that vary and evolve depending on environmental conditions.
Collection
The optimal time to harvest is when the panicle reaches physiological maturity (when 95% of the grains are straw color and the rest are yellow) and the grain humidity is 20 to 27%. We recommend using a mechanized harvesting harvester fitted with tracks.
Cacao: Origin, Importance, and Cultivation
Source and Importance
The origin of cacao is the wet tropics of America, northwestern South America, and the Amazon. The Mayans in Mexico domesticated and cultivated cacao, where the Spanish found it at a very advanced stage of culture and duplication as a beverage. In South America, cacao remained in the wild. The Spanish adopted the original names known in Mexico as cocoa and chocoate from the Nahuatl language.
Requirements in Climate and Soil
- Temperature: 21°C.
- Water: Needs vary between 1500 and 2500 mm in the lowlands and warmer areas, and between 1200 and 1500 mm in cooler areas or high valleys.
- Wind: Continued winds can cause desiccation, death, and leaf drop.
- Shading: Cacao is a typically umbrófilo crop. The purpose of shading at the beginning of planting is to reduce the amount of radiation reaching the crop, reduce plant activity, and protect the crop from harmful winds.
Soil Demands
Cocoa requires soils rich in organic matter, deep, clay loam, with a pH ranging between 4.0 and 7.0.
Commercial Varieties
There are two races of cocoa:
- a) Stranger (= Trinity) or cocoa amargo (bitter cocoa)
- b) Criollo cacao hybrids or sweet cocoa
Cultural Practices
Soil Preparation
The soil should be prepared…
Weed Control
Weeding is essential…
Pruning
- Maintenance pruning
- Phytosanitary pruning
- Formation pruning
- Rehabilitation pruning
Spread
Vegetative Propagation
The graft of cocoa should be strong and healthy patterns obtained from seed, developed in containers or in the field. Older trees may also be inserted, provided the grafts are made in young twigs and buds present or occurring after the plants have been pruned to a height of 30 to 50 cm.
- Grafting with buds
- Approximation grafting
- Propagation by seed cuttings
Collection
Cocoa starts producing from the third year and produces economically from the sixth year. It reaches its fullness at 12 to 14 years.
Planting Spacing
Sweet cocoa is planted at a distance of 3.5 to 4.5 meters. Bitter cocoa varieties and hybrids are planted at a distance of 5 to 6 meters. The current trend for new plantings is to place all varieties at a distance of 3.5 to 3.75 meters.
Fermentation
Fermentation is the process that gives cocoa its intrinsic quality to make chocolate.
Washing
The beans are washed at the end of fermentation in some countries to remove particles of pulp. Cruder types generally do not need washing, as prolonged fermentation…
Drying
Drying cocoa is the process during which the beans lose excess moisture (6 to 8%). During this time, the cocoa beans complete the changes to get the flavor and aroma of chocolate.
Selection, Classification, Storage, and Encostalado
Dried beans should be selected for soil, loose particles of the seed coat, and broken kernels. This is done using a series of screens arranged in series, and grains pass through them. Hot air currents remove impurities.
Cotton: Origin, Importance, and Cultivation
Yield per Unit Area
- 1000 kgr/ha fiber
- 420 kgr cake
- 200 kgr flour
- 100 kgr peel oil
- 200 kgr seed
- 20 kgr reserve seed
- 40 kg impurities
Varieties
- Stoneville 310
- Stoneville 825
- Stoneville 731
- Cocker (Estacion Experimental Agricola de Saavedra)
Climate and Soil
- Temperature: Flowering occurs at 8°C. Germination occurs at 16 to 20°C. Geographic and climatic conditions are between 28° north latitude and 47° south latitude.
- Soil: Franco loamy sand and clay loam.
Tending
- Second hoeing
- Thinning
- Mechanical composting
Collection
The pickers have a vertical drum engaging screws fitted with cotton that rip it out of the open seed balls. The peelers are less selective machines that start the ball of the plant.