Capinota
Encyclopedia
Capinota is a small town in the Bolivia
n Department of Cochabamba
and capital of the Capinota Province
.
of 2.380 m where the rivers Río Arque and Río Rocha meet to become the Río Caine and the Río Grande
downstream. It is located 66 kilometers south of the department capital Cochabamba
on the northern river bank of Río Arque, at 17°42′54"S 66°15′49"W.
with a yearly rainfall average of 500 mm and a temperature average of 18°C. The dry season
lasts from May to September and has lower temperatures but no frost. The rainy season
lasts from December to February and is warmer.
, a cement
industry, the only major industrial activity in the Capinota vicinity
es, carrot
s, beet
s, onion
s, corn
and alfalfa
. There are also horticultural
activities, such as vineyard
s and fruit tree
s, like peach
es and apple
s.
The average field size is only 0.35 ha
, ranging from 600 to 6000 m². Land is owned privately as well as rented on a share-cropping basis. The land is prepared and ploughed manually and with oxen, tractors are rarely used.
method of soil conservation, to enrich and conserve their soils. They make use of the minerals and organic sediments of Río Arque which are freed by rains in the upper part of the river basin. These materials are trapped by altering the course of the river in the Capinota basin to flood some of the fields along the river bed.
To alter the course of the river, bocatomas are made, man-made openings or inlets, which have to be rebuilt after each flooding by the river, which is done every 1-3 years. These bocatomas are 30 cm high and capture an average layer of sediment of 10 cm in every field. Building these 'dykes' around the fieds is mainly done in December at the beginning of the rainy season. Between the outer dykes and inside the fields, small canals 35 cm deep and 80 cm wide are built to distribute the water equally. At the lower end of the field furrows drain the excess water, so that the land inside the outer dykes is covered by 12 to 15 cm of water.
Lameo irrigation
and sedimentation
at Capinota cover 228 ha and more than 200 farmers participate in it. It enables the farmers to practise an intensive and market oriented agriculture where mainly potatoes and Dutch
tomatoes are grown. In fields located further away from the river, the soil is enriched by mixing the river sediments with the existing soil, adding chicken manure
.
From studies of geomorphology and sedimentation in the Valle Alto region it can be estimated that the technique of lameo goes back as far as 1500 BCE.
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
n Department of Cochabamba
Cochabamba Department
Cochabamba is one of the nine component departments of Bolivia. It is known to be the "granary" of the country because of its variety of agricultural products due to Cochabamba's geographical position. It has an area of 55,631 km². Its population, in the 2007 census, was 1,750,000...
and capital of the Capinota Province
Capinota Province
Capinota is one of sixteen provinces in the Cochabamba Department, Bolivia. Its capital is the city of Capinota. The province has a population of 25,582 inhabitants .- Subdivision :...
.
Location
Capinota is situated at an altitudeAltitude
Altitude or height is defined based on the context in which it is used . As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The reference datum also often varies according to the context...
of 2.380 m where the rivers Río Arque and Río Rocha meet to become the Río Caine and the Río Grande
Río Grande (Bolivia)
The Río Grande in Bolivia rises on the southern slope of the Sierra de Cochabamba, east of the city of Cochabamba, at . At its source it is known as the Río Rocha and crosses the Cochabamba valley basin in a westerly direction...
downstream. It is located 66 kilometers south of the department capital Cochabamba
Cochabamba
Cochabamba is a city in central Bolivia, located in a valley bearing the same name in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and is the fourth largest city in Bolivia with an urban population of 608,276 and a metropolitan population of more than 1,000,000 people...
on the northern river bank of Río Arque, at 17°42′54"S 66°15′49"W.
Climate
The climate is semi-aridSemi-arid
A semi-arid climate or steppe climate describes climatic regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not extremely...
with a yearly rainfall average of 500 mm and a temperature average of 18°C. The dry season
Dry season
The dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year...
lasts from May to September and has lower temperatures but no frost. The rainy season
Wet season
The the wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region occurs. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the...
lasts from December to February and is warmer.
Population
Capinota's population has risen from 3,955 (census 1992) to 4,801 (census 2001) and is estimated to be 5,242 by 2006. The annual population growth is 1.77%. The population is mainly of Quechua origin.Industry and Trade
Near Capinota there is Coboce MillMill (grinding)
A grinding mill is a unit operation designed to break a solid material into smaller pieces. There are many different types of grinding mills and many types of materials processed in them. Historically mills were powered by hand , working animal , wind or water...
, a cement
Cement
In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...
industry, the only major industrial activity in the Capinota vicinity
Agriculture
Because of the absence of frost, conditions for agriculture are favourable all year round. Crops which are mainly cultivated are potatoPotato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es, carrot
Carrot
The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh...
s, beet
Beet
The beet is a plant in the Chenopodiaceae family which is now included in Amaranthaceae family. It is best known in its numerous cultivated varieties, the most well known of which is the purple root vegetable known as the beetroot or garden beet...
s, onion
Onion
The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...
s, corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
and alfalfa
Alfalfa
Alfalfa is a flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae cultivated as an important forage crop in the US, Canada, Argentina, France, Australia, the Middle East, South Africa, and many other countries. It is known as lucerne in the UK, France, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, and known as...
. There are also horticultural
Horticulture
Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...
activities, such as vineyard
Vineyard
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...
s and fruit tree
Fruit tree
A fruit tree is a tree which bears fruit that is consumed or used by people — all trees that are flowering plants produce fruit, which are the ripened ovaries of flowers containing one or more seeds. In horticultural usage, the term 'fruit tree' is limited to those that provide fruit for...
s, like peach
Peach
The peach tree is a deciduous tree growing to tall and 6 in. in diameter, belonging to the subfamily Prunoideae of the family Rosaceae. It bears an edible juicy fruit called a peach...
es and apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
s.
The average field size is only 0.35 ha
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
, ranging from 600 to 6000 m². Land is owned privately as well as rented on a share-cropping basis. The land is prepared and ploughed manually and with oxen, tractors are rarely used.
Lameo
Farmers in Capinota, as in some other valleys of the Cochabamba Department, practise the technique of lameo (or: may'kas), an indigenousIndigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
method of soil conservation, to enrich and conserve their soils. They make use of the minerals and organic sediments of Río Arque which are freed by rains in the upper part of the river basin. These materials are trapped by altering the course of the river in the Capinota basin to flood some of the fields along the river bed.
To alter the course of the river, bocatomas are made, man-made openings or inlets, which have to be rebuilt after each flooding by the river, which is done every 1-3 years. These bocatomas are 30 cm high and capture an average layer of sediment of 10 cm in every field. Building these 'dykes' around the fieds is mainly done in December at the beginning of the rainy season. Between the outer dykes and inside the fields, small canals 35 cm deep and 80 cm wide are built to distribute the water equally. At the lower end of the field furrows drain the excess water, so that the land inside the outer dykes is covered by 12 to 15 cm of water.
Lameo irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
and sedimentation
Sedimentation
Sedimentation is the tendency for particles in suspension to settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained, and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to the forces acting on them: these forces can be due to gravity, centrifugal acceleration...
at Capinota cover 228 ha and more than 200 farmers participate in it. It enables the farmers to practise an intensive and market oriented agriculture where mainly potatoes and Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
tomatoes are grown. In fields located further away from the river, the soil is enriched by mixing the river sediments with the existing soil, adding chicken manure
Manure
Manure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil...
.
From studies of geomorphology and sedimentation in the Valle Alto region it can be estimated that the technique of lameo goes back as far as 1500 BCE.