ABSTRACT:
More than 60% of Mexico's soil and water resources has been identified as being in a moderately to severely degraded condition. The objective for this Mexico-United States project was to identify Best Management Practices that could restore agricultural soil in the steep of the Patzcuaro Watershed in central Mexico. The use of no-till equipment and preserving a moderate amount of crop residue (33% cover) on soils having 8% slope reduced soil loss 80%, and runoff 76%, compared to conventional tillage. Rainfall simulation studies indictlted that water infiltration is enhanced almost three-fold using no-till. Improvement of water infiltration and deep-water percolation would represent a significant modification of the local hydrologic regime for lake recharge and soil moisture retention for cropland areas. Using hydro-logical process-based modeling with satellite images and Geographical Information Systems allowed the extrapolation of point-based experimental data to the watershed scale. This technology will provide the decision-making elements needed to develop soil conservation plans and implement a national program for conservation tillage in Mexico.
Footnotes
Mario Tisrareño-López is a hydrologist, Alma Delia Báez-González is a modeling systems scientist, Miguel Velázquez-Valle is a soil scientist, and Ramón Claverán-Alonso is a rangeland scientist, with the National Center for Sustainable Agriculture (CENAPROS), Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agricolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP) in Morelia, Mexico. Kenneth N. Potter is a soil scientist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Grassland Soil and Water Kesearch Lahoratory in Temple, Tex., and Jeffry J. Stone is a hydrologist at the USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Ariz. Mario Tapia-Vargas is a Ph.D. candidate in watershed management at the Calegio de Postgraduados, Montecillos, México.
- Copyright 1999 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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