THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IRRIGATION ECONOMY OF MENDOZA, ARGENTINA
1969; American Association of Geographers; Volume: 59; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/j.1467-8306.1969.tb00660.x
ISSN1467-8306
Autores Tópico(s)Historical and socio-economic studies of Spain and related regions
ResumoABSTRACT The agricultural pattern of Mendoza, Argentina, has two main elements, an early-developed region of vineyards around Mendoza city, and a region to west, south, and east with more crop diversity and modern technology. Four principal factors contribute to the difference between these two, 1) climate; 2) the chronology of agricultural settlement; 3) land tenure; and 4) the manner of water provision. The Mendoza city region is associated with higher temperatures and longer growing season than the peripheral region, with earlier development of irrigated land, with backward forms of land tenure, and with only limited use of well water to aid river supplies. Both land tenure and water provision are changing factors with considerable impact on the rate of agricultural development. The probable qualitative effect of two further changes in water supply, high dams, and new water control legislation, is comparable to that of well use. By contrast, canal lining and river diversion are primarily quantitative additions with little developmental effect. Notes 1C. A. Romanella, "Los Suelos de la region del rio Mendoza. Ensayo de establecimiento de series,"Boletín de Estudios Geograficos, Vol. 4 (1957), pp. 53 54. 2J. Polanskii, "Rasgos Geomorfológicos esenciales del territorio de la Provincia de Mendoza,"Anuario, Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Tecnológicas (Mendoza, 1952), pp. 12–18. 3J. J. Burgos and A. L. Vidal, "The Climates of the Argentine Republic According to the New Thornthwaite Classification," translated by A. M. McFarland and R. G. Osborn, Annals, Association of American Geographers, Vol. 41 (1951), p. 247. 4M. Zamorano, "El Viñedo de Mendoza,"Boletín de Estudios Geograficos, Vol. 6 (1959), p. 59; Jose Ruano, "La lucha contra las heladas," speech given at the Chamber of Commerce, Mendoza, Argentina, 7 October, 1957. 5H. Isnard, La Vigne en Algerie (Gap, France: Ophrys, 1947), pp. 42–51. 6Romanella, op. cit., footnote 1, pp. 1–57. 7Romanella, op. cit., footnote 1, map facing p. 8. 8M. I. Velasco, "Los Aprovechamientos de agua para riego en la region arida Argentina,"Boletín de Estudios Geograficos, Vol. 7 (1960), p. 90. 9J. Draghi Lucero, Descripcion de la provincia de Cuyo: Cartas de los jesuitas mendocinos (Mendoza: Best, 1940), pp. Lii-Lvi. 10J. Draghi, Miguel Aimé Pouget y su Obra (Mendoza: Municipalidad, 1936), p. 59; O. Schmieder, Länderkunde Südamerikas (Leipzig: Franz Deuticke, 1932), p. 101, claims that Portuguese from the Azores did much to develop the vineyards, but this must have been on the basis of the poor criollo vine stock, introduced by the first Spaniards in 1561 or soon after, and now replaced by French vines. In any case, the vineyard area was small until the late 19th century; Zamorano, op. cit., footnote 4, p. 54. 11Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Tecnológicas, Censo Nacional Agropecuario, Provincia de Mendoza, Resultados, Provisionales (Mendoza: Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Tecnológicas, 1962), p. 73. 12Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Tecnológicas, op. cit., footnote 11, p. 74. 13R. Marco del Pont, Historia del Sud Mendocino (San Rafael, Argentina: published privately by the author, 1948), p. 224. 14Marco del Pont, op. cit., footnote 13, p. 277. 15Ministeria de Hacienda, Censo Nacional Agropecuario 1908, Tomo II (Buenos Aires: 1909). 16Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Tecnológicas, op. cit., footnote 11, p. 77. 17Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Tecnológicas, Anuario 1963–64 (Mendoza: 1964), p. 48. 18The estimate of 15,000 contratistas is from B. Marianetti, El Racimo y Su Aventura (Buenos Aires: Editorial Plantina, 1965), p. 97; the 17,000 figure is derived from Zamorano, op. cit., footnote 4, p. 87. The censuses inaccurately include contratistas with owners rather than as a special group of tenants, so that no exact numbers or distribution can be given here. Further, the latest census, which relates to 1960, gives no information on the numbers of tenants or of owners, only the area owned by each group. The 1957 data on numbers of sharecroppers refers to a hold-all category with some other forms, so that the number is slightly inflated. 19Zamorano, op. cit., footnote 4, p. 87. 20The absence of short-term tenants on alfalfa lands may seem surprising to anyone acquainted with the Pampa provinces, where they were used by estancia owners who wished to upgrade their cattle pastures with alfalfa. Immigrant tenants ploughed the permanent grass and worked the land for two or three years, after which they had to plant alfalfa for the owner to use thereafter. These tenants had no capital for cattle-herds and therefore no interest in alfalfa-growing for themselves. Their situation was thus quite different from the alfalfa-growers of Mendoza who are often cattle-owners or feeders, and therefore generally have enough financial means to own their land. 21General evidence as to the undesirability of the landlord/short-term tenant arrangement in Latin America may be gleaned from many sources: on Argentina; B. A. Defelippe, Geografía Economíca Argentina (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Losange, 1958), pp. 119–22; or A. Ferrer, The Argentine Economy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), pp. 160–61. 22M. Perez, "La explotacion de las aguas subterraneas en la Provincia de Mendoza,"Boletín de Estudios Geograficos, Vol. 1 (1949), p. 14. 23Unpublished data supplied by the Department of Irrigation, Mendoza. 24Information on well diameters and yields was kindly supplied by Ing. A. Ortiz Maldonado, Department of Irrigation, Mendoza. 25J. A. Luque, Consumo y Distribucion del Aqua de Riego en la vid (Mendoza: Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Boletin Tecnico No. 4, Aug., 1953), p. 12. 26Irrigacion Cimalco (Mendoza: pamphlet printed for the Cimalco Company of Mendoza, by Victor Hugo Faseniella Editorial, 1967). 27This viewpoint is derived largely from conversations in 1966 with Dr. C. Rousseau, consultant geologist in San Rafael, and with Ing. M. Cinca, director of the Diamante River Department of Irrigation. 28Idia, Vol. 140 (special additional section), Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria (Buenos Aires: August, 1959), p. 51. 29This unjust difference in supply is commented on by J. Chambouleyron, in Los Andes (Mendoza, Oct. 2nd, 1966), p. 8, and by Sra. E. P. de Moreno, El Riego en el Agro Mendocino (Mendoza: Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, 1963), p. 53. 30de Moreno, op. cit., footnote 29, p. 30. 31Desvio de los Rios Cobre y Tordillo a la Cuenca del Rio Atuel (Mendoza: Department of Irrigation, 1964).
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