Cultural practices and importance of the floristic-livestock component in agroecosystems of Atzalan, Xochiapulco, Puebla.

Abstract

The floristic-livestock component of agroecosystems in Family Production Units (UPF) promotes socio-cultural wealth. The value of floristic-livestock cultural importance was identified to propose good productive management practices. From October 2021 to January 2022, semi-structured interviews and field trips were applied. The UPF, cultural practices, performance, sale prices, type of use, arrangement-spatial distribution, and physical-environmental variables were characterized. Likewise, external economic income that contributes to the family economy was detected. Cultural importance index (CI), principal component analysis (PCA), Kruskal-Wallis, Tukey’s test, and Hart diagram were applied. Two types of agroecosystems were recorded, with a slope that varied between 5 and 35 % and a minimum-maximum environmental temperature of 21.2 and 26.3 °C, respectively. The UPF was integrated into a higher percentage of older adults with unfinished primary school. According to information from producers, the milpa system (corn-beans-squash) had an average yield of 244.5 kg of corn and 33.5 kg of beans. 97 useful floristic species and 14 uses of them were registered. The spatial floristic arrangement was random, uniform, and semi-uniform. The floristic-livestock CI registered high values ​​for: Persea americana (4.5), Phaseolus vulgaris (3.0), Prunus persica (3.7), and Zea mays (4.3); chickens (2.3), turkeys (0.9), ducks (0.9) and pigs (0.9), respectively. The floristic-livestock PCA showed a higher correlation as living support, obtaining fruits and firewood; Obtaining meat, and eggs, as a gift, breeding, and fertilizer. Despite the economic-migratory problems of the evaluated area, the floristic-livestock cultural use is still preserved.