Characterization of cocoa (theobroma cacao, l.) producing farms in the canton of yaguachi, Guayas Province

Abstract

There is scarce information on the area under cocoa cultivation and inventory of species in renewed agroforestry farms in the Union de Organizaciones Campesinas Cacaoteras del Ecuador (UNOCACE); the purpose of this research was to georeference the area of dynamic agroforestry systems in national cocoa (Theobroma cacao L) producing farms and inventory the flora. The georeferenced coordinate method was used to determine the area of the farm; and, the global positioning system (GPS), to locate the species that make up the agroforestry system, using for this case the KoboCollect and GPS Status applications, downloaded on a smart mobile device (cell phone). Between 2016 and 2017, the small producers of the "El Deseo" precinct, installed 15 farms, resulting in a total of 11.8873 ha of dynamic agroforestry systems, being the area range from 0.3 to 2.0 hectares. The agroforestry systems evaluated, present different results according to each individual, species and family that compose it. In these agroforestry systems, it is recommended to complement with cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.), using national cocoa varieties 800 and 801; and, to establish fruit, timber, biomass, musaceae and palm tree crops, to optimize and generate value to the agroforestry systems.