Capinota is a small town in 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 ...

n Department of Cochabamba and capital of the Capinota Province.

Location

''Capinota'' is situated at an

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

of 2.380 m where the rivers Río Arque and Río Rocha meet to become the

Río Caine Caine is a river located in the eastern cordilleras of the Bolivian Andes in South America. It flows through the Cochabamba Department and the Potosí Department. See also * Jaya Mayu Jaya Mayu (Quechua ''jaya'' pungency, locoto, ''mayu'' ...

and the

Río Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

downstream. It is located 66 kilometers south of the department capital

Cochabamba Cochabamba ( ay, Quchapampa; qu, Quchapampa) is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and the fourth largest city in Bolivia, with a population of 630 ...

on the northern river bank of Río Arque, at .

Climate

The climate is

semi-arid 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- ...

with a yearly rainfall average of 500 mm and a temperature average of 18 °C. 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 ...

lasts from May to September and has lower temperatures but no frost. 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 * '' ...

lasts from December to February and is warmer.

Population

The population is mainly of Quechua and mestizo of origin. The Capinota province has three sections: Capinota, Santivanes, and Sicaya and according to the 2012 census, the 29.659 population was distributed among Capinota, Santivanes, and Sicaya as 19.392, 6.527 and 3.740 inhabitants, respectively. The Capinota city is the biggest urban town and its population has risen from 3,955 (census 1992) to 4,801 (census 2001) and to 5.264 (census 2012). The second urban city is Irpa Irpa, having 3.868 inhabitants (census 2012).

Industry and Trade

Four kilometers from the city, in the community Irpa-Irpa is where Coboce

Mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement mixe ...

production industry is located. This is the only major industrial activity in Capinota. Recently, Coboce concluded its expansion with a brand new mill. The Coboce company brought economic importance in trade and transportation to the province. The transportation of Coboce products is dominated by the local citizens. Moreover, the company is committed to support the sustainable development of the adjacent cities (Irpa Irpa and Capinota mainly) contributing with the infrastructure.

Agriculture

Because of the absence of frost, conditions for agriculture are favourable all year round. Crops which are mainly cultivated are

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...

es,

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in color, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild carrot, ''Daucus carota'', na ...

s, beets,

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the on ...

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

and

alfalfa Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, and silage, as ...

. There are also

horticultural Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

activities, such as

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyard ...

s and

fruit tree A fruit tree is a tree which bears fruit that is consumed or used by animals and humans — all trees that are flowering plants produce fruit, which are the ripened ovaries of flowers containing one or more seeds. In horticultural usage, t ...

s, like

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, n ...

es and

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...

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 sharecropping 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 indigenous method of

soil conservation Soil conservation is the prevention of loss of the topmost layer of the soil from erosion or prevention of reduced fertility caused by over usage, acidification, salinization or other chemical soil contamination. Slash-and-burn and other uns ...

, 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 fields 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 (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 devel ...

and

sedimentation Sedimentation is the deposition of sediments. It takes place when particles in suspension 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 ...

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 Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

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 is organic matter that is used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Most manure consists of animal feces; other sources include compost and green manure. Manures contribute to the Soil fertility, fertility of soil by adding organic ma ...

. 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.

References

External links

Province Capinota homepage

Sources

Lameo, an indigenous method of soil conservationEstimating spatial patterns of soil erosion and deposition in the Andean regionAppropriate designs and appropriating irrigation systems
{{Cochabamba Department Populated places in Cochabamba Department