Diversidad y abundancia de malezas presentes en pasturas de las zonas ganaderas de la parroquia Honorato Vásquez del Cantón Cañar

Abstract

Weeds represent a great threat to global and national agriculture by limiting land use options, therefore, adequate management is necessary to minimize economic and environmental damage in favor of sustainable agriculture, in this context, the objective of the present study was to determine the diversity and abundance of weeds present in the pastures of the livestock areas of the Honorato Vásquez parish of the Cantón Cañar, province of Cañar. For which 92 UPAS (Associative Productive Unit) were selected, which were categorized according to their location with respect to the micro-watersheds present in the area and the sampling procedure corresponded to the descriptive quantity-availability of weeds and was carried out progressively from the month of April of the year 2021. Obtaining as a result of the taxonomic classification, the identification of 18 families and 30 species, the most representative being the Poacea family with 61.78%. Likewise, the Margalef index was determined for the study area, whose value was 3.75, while the Shannon diversity index was 2.55, resulting in greater diversity in the UPAS close to the micro-basin. In addition, it was obtained that the 3 main species of importance were T. officinale, S. oleraceus and P. lanceolata L. and as a result of the statistical analysis, significant differences were observed between UPAS for the Margalef index and the number of weeds per m2. Concluding that from the determination of the differences in the diversity and abundance of the species according to the location of the area with respect to the bodies of water, it will be possible to design efficient weed control plans for the different national livestock areas.