Some characteristics of the southern area of Lake Maracaibo Venezuela.

Dear readers, generally when we share information of an agricultural nature with all of you we make reference to the south zone of Lake Maracaibo Venezuela, taking into account that it is the geographical area where we reside and therefore it is where we carry out some tests of an agricultural nature and visit some production units in the area thus knowing firsthand some characteristics of soil, climate, among others.. These specifications are a bit technical, but they are of great value for those who want to venture into agricultural production in this region.

In that sense, it is important to mention that the southern area of Lake Maracaibo is located to the west of Venezuela and one of the areas with high livestock and agricultural potential is the Colon Municipality, because it has large tracts of land that are destined for the planting of crops such as bananas, oil palm and especially pasture crops for the exploitation of dual-purpose livestock.

According to the aforementioned, if you want to establish any crop, certain characteristics are important, among which the climatic ones stand out, to talk a little about them it is necessary to mention that the climate of the region is conditioned by a hot and humid tropical climate, in terms of annual rainfall can approach up to 1,300 mm annually, regarding the monthly distribution of rainfall, it can be said that they are marked by two periods: the rainy one (May -October) with a rain range that can vary between 50 and 93 mm and the little rainy one (November- April) with ranges that can fluctuate between 160 and 170 mm, on the other hand, the average temperature is between 28 and 35 ° C approximately, sometimes 40 ° C has been reached.

As for the soils, it can be said that they are of variable textures, from clayey that have very slow drainage which can cause flooding to soils of medium and coarse texture, generally clay loam soils predominate (Loamy because they contain the three types of particles Sand, Silt and clay predominates), this creates a range of possibilities in terms of the use of the land for the planting of any crop. The municipality, according to Uzcategui (2005), has approximately 500 thousand hectares of agricultural soils that correspond to more than 25% of the national potential, more than half a million hectares for livestock use, more than 200 thousand hectares of forestry vocation and more than 350 thousand hectares for conservation use and under special regime.

On the other hand, the hydrography of the region is composed of several rivers that flow into Lake Maracaibo, the river that crosses and divides the populations of Santa Bárbara and San Carlos of the Colón Municipality is the Escalante River, there are also watercourses that are known by the name of caños that have utility as an alluvial tributary and act as drains among them is the Caño el Padre, Caño Caimán among others. On the other hand, the vegetation present in the area is typical of tropical climates where you can find species such as cedar (Cedrela sp), mijao (Anacardium excelsum), saman (Samanea saman) among other species such as cabezona natural grasses (Paspalum virgatum) that are well known in agricultural production systems.

Dear readers, knowing the geographical characteristics of a region is important, since it allows us to make important decisions when emigrating and also from the agronomic point of view because not all crops adapt to the same agroclimatic conditions. Thank you for staying with me until the end, until a next delivery.