MARCEÑO: TABASCO?S LOWLAND SWAMPS CYCLE OF HIGHLY EFFICIENT CORN PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Abstract

The "popal" is a plant community dominated by hydrophile species, as well as an habitat for numerous animal species. It is very common on the alluvial zone called Llanura Tabasqueña. During seven or eight months per year, many popals stay flooded. However, as water table lessens, an intensive agriculture and fishing activities are performed by the human communities living there. This crop season is named marceño, because it begins in March; in this season, maize (Zea mays L.) yields are obtained of over four metric tons per hectare, without fertilizers. During the rainy season the swamp is flooded again, and primary vegetation is regenerated. The high productivity of the marceño system is evidenced by this regeneration ability of native species and by the high yields of maize. This paper contains a brief description of the marceño system.