Socioecological resilience of typical citrus fruit agroecosystems Resiliencia socioecológica de agroecosistemas

This paper, as a tool for analysis, considered the capacity of the interaction that open systems have against the occurrence of disturbances so that they can continue to function with minimal losses of energy, called resilience, an emerging characteristic of agroecosystems. To establish a method to measure this characteristic, ten variables were evaluated, including seven cultural variables: level of schooling, land tenure type, saving capacity, social organizational identity, farm infrastructure, weed control and production system; and three ecosystem variables: water resource availability, phytosanitary management and Main Agroecological Structure (MAS) in typical citrus fruit agroecosystems. These were methodologically grouped into six recommended domains: groups of farms and citrus growers with similar ecosystem and cultural conditions that have been characterized and typified in a previous study. In each of these groups, three farm types were selected for a total of 18 production units (department of Meta, Colombia). To determine the difference between the variables, Chi-square tests were applied (using the Pearson and Fisher statistics). Network analysis was applied to determine the relationship between the variables. The resilience was not significantly correlated with level of schooling, farm infrastructure or MAS. The relationship between the resilience and cultural variables presented a high significance, whereas the ecosystem variables showed a low statistical significance. Additional key words: citriculture; Orinoquía; productive systems; low tropics. 1 Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia (UPTC), Duitama Sectional Faculty, School of Agricultural Business Administration, Duitama (Colombia). ORCID Cleves-Leguizamo, J.A. : 0000-0001-9717-9753 2 Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales (IDEAM), Subdirección de Estudios Ambientales, Bogota (Colombia). ORCID Salamanca-Sanjuanes, H. : 0000-0002-6031-8884 3 Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Instituto de Estudios Ambientales (IDEA), Bogota (Colombia). ORCID MartínezBernal, L.F. : 0000-0002-2117-3715 4 Corresponding author. jose.cleves@uptc.edu. co In Latin America, climate variability and extreme events have impacted different regions (Altieri et al., 2012). In this same region, the intensity and presence of extreme events is increasing, and, in Colombia, located in an area with a direct influence from the warming of the Pacific waters, the impact is much stronger than in any other country in the region (PNUD, 2011). In our country, the temperature regime is determined by its geographical position and its physiographic characteristics (Pabón and Hurtado, 2002). In the Orinoquía region, the distribution of the average air temperature is very uniform, with values ranging from 24 to 28°C. In contrast, pluviometric variations are significant (Pabón et al., 2001). In previous studies, the wide genetic plasticity of the Orange Valencia (Citrus sinensis L., Osbeck) was demonstrated for the environmental conditions of the Colombian Orinoquia (Cleves-Leguizamo, 2018a). This study aimed to give continuity to the analysis of the incidence of the cultural components associated with the production of citrus fruits in the Department of Meta, a place with adequate soil and climate conditions for citrus production (Orduz and Mateus, 2012). This situation is more significant if we take into account that, in the last decade, the domestic market has shown signs of a citrus shortage as a result of the lower production generated by extreme weather events and deterioration of crops, which has led to a reduction in production (Aguilar et al., 2012). It is necessary to increase the planted area by 15.000 ha, in addition to replacing at least 20,000 ha that have finished their production cycle (Mateus et al., 2010). Citrus fruits are permanent crops, which require long-term decisions aimed at the sustainability of productive systems (Cleves-Leguizamo et al., 2012). This makes it necessary to understand the effects of human interventions on nature, the transformation of the ecosystem and the impact that such alterations have on communities (Maya, 2003; Nicholls and Altieri, 2012). The concept of resilience was initially a contribution from the field of Ecology, defined as a system’s capacity to persist in the face of disturbances, while keeping its original structure and function stable. This is achieved through learning, adaptation and self-organization processes considered critical characteristics for recovering equilibrium and system control (Holling, 2001). RESUMEN En este artículo, como una herramienta de análisis se consideró la capacidad de interacción que tienen los sistemas abiertos frente a la ocurrencia de un disturbio, de tal manera que puedan seguir funcionando con mínimas pérdidas de energía e información, denominada resiliencia y es considerada como una característica emergente de los agroecosistemas. Con el objetivo de establecer un método para medir esta característica se evaluaron diez variables, siete culturales: nivel de escolaridad, tipo de tenencia de la tierra, capacidad de ahorro, pertenencia a alguna organización social, infraestructura de la finca, control de arvenses y sistema de producción; y tres variables ecosistémicas: disponibilidad del recurso hídrico, manejo fitosanitario y Estructura Agroecológica Principal (EAP) en agroecosistemas citrícolas tipificados. Estas variables fueron agrupadas metodológicamente en seis dominios de recomendación, es decir grupos de fincas y de citricultores con condiciones ecosistémicos y a la vez culturales similares, que en trabajo previo habían sido caracterizados y tipificados. En cada uno de estos grupos se seleccionaron tres fincas tipo para un total de 18 unidades productivas (Meta, Colombia). Para determinar diferencia entre las variables se aplicaron pruebas de Chi Cuadrado (empleando los estadísticos de Pearson y Fisher). Para determinar la relación entre las variables se aplicó análisis de redes, pudiéndose determinar que el nivel de escolaridad, infraestructura de la finca y EAP no presentaron relación de significancia con la resiliencia. La relación entre las variables culturales presentaron una alta significancia, mientras que las variables ecosistémicas evidenciaron baja significancia estadística con la resiliencia. Palabras clave adicionales: citricultura; Orinoquía; sistemas productivos; Trópico bajo. Received for publication: 24-08-2018 Accepted for publication: 31-07-2019