Mizque (from

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

: ''misk'i'', meaning "sweet") is a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

in the

Cochabamba Department Cochabamba ( ay, Quchapampa Jach'a Suyu, es, Departamento de Cochabamba , qu, Quchapampa Suyu), from Quechua ''qucha'' or ''qhucha'', meaning "lake", ''pampa'' meaning "plain", is one of the nine departments of Bolivia. It is known to be the ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

. Its capital is

Mizque Mizque, Misk'i (from Quechua: ''misk'i'', meaning "sweet") is a town in the Cochabamba Department, Bolivia. It is the capital of the Mizque Province. Mizque is located in the valley of the Mizque River, one of the main tributaries of the Río Gr ...

. The province, in 1992, had a population of 27,959 inhabitants, mostly

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

citizens of

Quechuan Quechua (, ; ), usually called ("people's language") in Quechuan languages, is an indigenous language family spoken by the Quechua peoples, primarily living in the Peruvian Andes. Derived from a common ancestral language, it is the most widely ...

descent. In 2001, the population increased to 36,181 inhabitants and it was estimated at 41,062 in 2005.

Geography

Mizque Province is home to a great diversity of

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

s because it contains a wide variety of

topographic Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scie ...

features with heights ranging between 2,000 and 3,600 m. The province belongs to the Julpe-

basin with an area of 3,845 km². The main rivers are: *

Mizque River The Mizque River (Quechua ''misk'i'' sweet) is a river of Bolivia in the Cochabamba Department. It is a tributary of Río Grande. See also *List of rivers of Bolivia This is a list of rivers in Bolivia. By drainage basin This list is arranged b ...

, 75 km *

Julpe River The Julpe River is a river of Bolivia in the Cochabamba Department, Mizque Province, Mizque Municipality and in the Carrasco Province, Pocona Municipality. It is a left tributary of Mizque River. The confluence is north east of Mizque in the sout ...

, 60 km * Uyuchama River, 50 km * Tuqma River, 45 km * Kari Kari River, 42 km * Vicho Vicho River, 32 km Although there is a large amount of superficial and sub-superficial water within the province, the zone is suffering from drought due to the lack of

irrigation system Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been develop ...

s. Some of the highest mountains of the province are listed below:Bolivia 1:100,000 Mizque 3835

Climate

The climate is dry. There are a few irregular rainfalls and long periods of drought. The medium annual temperature varies between 16 and 18 °C. During the

rainy season The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Rainy Season may also refer to: * ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King * "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni * ''T ...

("summer"), corresponding to the months from December to March, the province receives 87% of the annual

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

, in December and January alone 57%, often occurring as

hail Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. Ice pellets generally fal ...

storms. During the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

("winter") the temperature goes down radically and snowfalls occur. The annual precipitation is between 300 and 700 mm, reaching 507 mm annually on an average.

Flora

The

semiarid A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

and

arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ar ...

regions are covered with plants which are tolerant towards dry conditions. 75% of the total area of Mizque Province is cultivated.

Fauna

The

red-fronted macaw The red-fronted macaw (''Ara rubrogenys'') is a parrot endemic to a small semi-desert mountainous area of Bolivia. It is a critically endangered species; it has been successfully bred in captivity, and is available, if not common, as a pet. It ...

s (''Ara rubrogenys''), endemic to a small mountainous area of Bolivia, can be observed in Mizque. This species is considered to be endangered due to intense agriculture activity which has reduced its

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

. The problem is that the peasants of some zones look upon them as a plague because they raid the maize in the fields. There is a chance that they might be regarded as one of the tourist attractions of the region.

Subdivision

The province is divided into three

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

which are further subdivided into ten

cantons A canton is a type of administrative division of a country. In general, cantons are relatively small in terms of area and population when compared with other administrative divisions such as counties, departments, or provinces. Internationally, t ...

The people

The majority of the population of the Mizque Province lives in the rural area in communities far apart from each other. The lack of good roads makes trade and providing services difficult. The land in some areas is quite dry and not appropriate for farming. That may be some of the reasons why the

Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, whi ...

in the municipalities of Mizque is among the lowest in Bolivia (0.365, 0.400 and 0.460), placing them in the positions 284 (Mizque), 305 (Vila Vila) and 298 (Alalay) out of 314 municipalities. The conditions of life are especially critical in the puna and remote communities. The level of income of a peasant family in the high zones or in the

dryland Drylands are defined by a scarcity of water. Drylands are zones where precipitation is balanced by evaporation from surfaces and by transpiration by plants (evapotranspiration). The United Nations Environment Program defines drylands as tropical ...

is estimated at 200 - 250 US-$ per year. Some data: There are 182 rural communities within the territory of the province situated in heights between 2,000 m in the template valleys and 3,600 m in the puna.

Language

The predominant language is

, spoken by 32,212 inhabitants and about 11,482 inhabitants are

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

. They can speak

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

as well. The following table shows the number of those belonging to the recognized group of speakers.obd.descentralizacion.gov.bo
(Spanish)

Economy

The economic activity is concentrated on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

and

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starti ...

and to a minor extent on

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

and

crafts A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale prod ...

. The most important sectors in agriculture are the cultivation of potatoes, maize, wheat, peanuts, barley and onions.

Festivals and Fairs

* 2nd week in May: Fruit fair in Mizque, 1 day * July 16:

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or Virgin of Carmel, is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order, particularly within the Catholic Church. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Ca ...

Alalay Alalay is a location in the Cochabamba Department in central Bolivia. It is the seat of the Alalay Municipality, the third municipal section of the Mizque Province Mizque (from Quechua: ''misk'i'', meaning "sweet") is a province in the Cochaba ...

, 3 days * September 8–14: Our Lord of Burgos (''Señor de Burgos'') in Mizque, 7 days * September 23–25: ''Virgen Mestiza de Shikimira'' in Vila Vila, 3 days

References

Global Program of Development
(Spanish)

External links

Education: Statistical Data of Mizque Municipality

Education: Statistical Data of Vila Vila Municipality

Education: Statistical Data of Alalay Municipality

Mizque and Campero Province
{{Authority control Provinces of Cochabamba Department