Traditional Stream-Border Agriculture in the Dry Forest at the North Coast in Peru: Case Study Jaguay Negro and Casitas

Abstract

The studied area is in the buffer zone of the Northwest Biosphere, in the Peruvian northwest. In this place, traditional agriculture is practiced in the riverbed during the flood time. After the rainy season, when the flood reduces, between April and June, crops are cultivated. The soil is translocated from the slope, were the Prosopis trees grow. The hypothesis is that the soil used for traditional agriculture includes more nitrogen and phosphorus, on the basis of the microbial and fungi symbiosis characteristic for the Fabaceae family. This soil will be removed by the flood. The study was conducted in Jaguay Negro, where the soil was transported from the slope, and in Casitas, where the agriculture uses soil from the gully. Interviews and soil fertility were analyzed. The result shows nitrogen and phosphorus in a middle level, which, as for the dry ecosystem, has a positive influence for the symbioses. This practice of orillado can be interpreted as a form of ecological agriculture since it uses the microbial symbiosis and mycorrhizal fungi. The orillado can be interesting as a resilient response from the local population
to the Climate Change.