Identificación de las potencialidades agroecológicas de la zona cafetalera del cantón Chaguarpamba, provincia de Loja

The coffee crop in Ecuador has economic, social and ecologic value. The social and economic importance is based on employment generation for 105 000 families. The ecological importance resides in the wide adaptability of coffee to different agroecosistemas of the 4 country regions: Coast, Sierra, Amazon and Galapagos Islands (COFENAC, 2013). It is known that for adequate growth and production of crops is essential to consider the ecological conditions of the region concerned. Soto (2007), said that agroecological zonification, is one of the main tools to reduce the risks to which is subjected the agriculture. Front this situation is important the crop agroecological zonification, for that reason, in this research was made a delimitation of coffee zone of canton Chaguarpamba, as well as, a study of soil and climate factors, they allowed the identification of potential zones for coffee crop; the evaluate variables was: temperature, precipitation, slope, texture, organic matter, pH and depth; for this purpose was used 2 mathematical models, the first one allowed calculated the influential temperature in the research zone and the second one allowed systematize the qualification process of variables for generation of maps of potentialities of study zone, which allowed that in the canton Chaguarpamba the coffee zone occupies 14,42% of total territory, where there are 2 categories of zonification: Optimal zones and optimal medium zones; excluding areas not suitable for the production. The results allow conclude that it’s very difficult that the 7 optimal conditions occur in the same time in the study zone, but, in zones rated like optimal medium there are coffee crops, where should implement appropriate techniques in order to ensure the correct development of coffee crops.