The southern zone of the department of Córdoba Colombia, for more than two decades has been promoting the cultivation of cocoa as a productive alternative in the replacement of illicit crops. There is no evidence of a study documenting the technical and economic characterization of the cocoa production system. The objective of this work was to analyze the production system from a technical and economic point of view. The sample is made up of 158 farmers selected at random. The information included aspects related to this production system in the municipalities of Montelíbano, Puerto Libertador, Tierralta and Valencia. The economic returns were obtained by the technique of the concession with producers with experience. The producers with an average age of 57 years of which 77% are male and 23% are women, about the educational level, basic primary predominates with 54% and 20% not having access to any level of schooling. The production model is that of family farming, average yields are 570 k/ha-1. The average income per year is 5,687,500 $/ha-1 the costs are 5,041,015 COP. per hectare which allows the generation of surpluses. The internal rate of return is 36% higher than the capital opportunity cost. It is concluded that with the local technology the costs are recovered, and generate surpluses for the producer of 1658,984 COP per hectare per year.

At present, the use of biofertilizers and protein plants in the nutrition of pastures and forage has increased. The investigation was carried out in the University Center of the municipality of Cumanayagua, county of Cienfuegos, Cuba with the objective of evaluating the response of Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) De Wit to the inoculation of different arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) strains. The experiment was carried out in polyethylene bags. The experiment used a random blocks design with three replicates and the following treatments: #1. Soil (Control treatment, without inoculation and NPK application), #2. Soil + inoculation with the AMF strain F. mosseae/INCAM-2, #3. Soil + inoculation with the AMF strain G. cubense/INCAM-4) and #4. Soil + NPK fertilization at plant establishment application of NPK (25, 40 y 120 kg ha-1 de N, P2O5 y K20) + N at each cut at 70% of the initial dose. The inoculation with AMF was simultaneous for all treatments. A establishment cut and five successive cuts were performed, with 51.33 average days between them. The biomass production, the content of gross protein of L. leucocephala in each harvest and the cumulative total, as well as mycorrhizal effectiveness, were quantified. L. leucocephala positively responded to F. mosseae/INCAM-2 inoculation. Biomass production for cut increased between 31,50 % (Treatment #2) y 19,40 % (Treatment #3) with respect to control treatment. Inoculation with F. mosseae/INCAM-2 showed higher mycorrhizal effectiveness. The highest value in gross protein was obtained in the variant with mineral fertilization and the inoculated variants overcame the control treatment, with better performance than treatment # 2 ( Soil+ Funneliformis mosseae/INCAM-2).

Color is one of the main characteristics that allows to establish the quality of food. Technically, it is defined as a mental response to the stimulus that a visible radiation produces in the retina that is transmitted to the brain by the optic nerve, so it is closely related to the nervous system and thus, this attribute in food marks the preference of an individual. Given its importance, different systems have been developed to objectively measure color in food, evaluating the changes obtained in a product due to processing and storage, determining, among other things, its shelf life. Considering the above, this review is presented with the objective of recognizing the main methods for determining color of food, and its applications in the food industry.

The Jibacoa region is a rice producing region generating high amounts of husk, used as an alternative for fertilizer. The convenience of tube technology for seedling production using rice husk combined with soil, as a substrate, is an option to produce coffee seedlings in the region. The experiment was carried out in the nursery of the Jibacoa Agroforestry Experimental Station, Villa Clara province, Cuba, located at 22°.01'N and 79°.58'W, in the period between November 2019 and June 2020. The effect of different proportions of burned rice husks (BRH)., soil and different Multicote® doses on the development of coffee seedlings established in tubes as containers was evaluated. A factorial completely randomized experimental design was used with 26 treatments. Seven months after the establishment, the variables height, stem diameter, number of paired leaves, leaf area and total dry mass were evaluated in 20 plants per treatment: The treatment consisting of 25% BRH + 75% soil + 3 g of Multicote® reported the highest mean values of height, stem diameter and number of leaves of seedlings of Coffea arabica L Var."Island 6_14.

The development and production of bananas are influenced by spatio-temporal edaphoclimatic conditions, which explains in a certain way the heterogeneous response that occurs on the farms, highlighting the need to generate information regarding the morphological characteristics of fruit for taking corrective actions that entail to increased productivity. The objective of this research was to carry out an analysis of production, taking into account the quantifiable variables through bunches profiling. 98,956 bunches recorded in a period of 108 weeks between 2021 and 2022 were analyzed in ten farms of two banana groups in Urabá-Antioquia, in the municipalities of Turbo, Apartadó and Carepa. Variables such as: cluster age, cluster weight, number of hands, basal-apical calibration, basal-apical length, removal of fingers and hands in the field. The R 4.2.1 software was used, with which a Spearman correlation, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was obtained and for comparison of means, a Kruskal post-hoc was done. Statistical differences were identified (p-value<2.2e-16) and the highest correlations were between age-weight (0.24), age-basal calibration (0.23) and number of hands-weight (0.45). These results indicate that harvest profiling is a practical and agile method that allows quantifying morphological variables of the bunches, making yield projections and adjusting agronomic management depending on the specifications of the marketer.

Plantain cultivation is of great importance for the country´s food security and sovereignty. In Colombia, about 87 % of the established area is associated crop and 13 % as monoculture; It is one of the subsectors that generates the highest income and employment, in 2022 960,000 direct and indirect jobs were reported. In the Caldas department, plantain is cultivated in all municipalities, its value chain, its main actors, flows, synergies, and governance spaces around this productive system were analyzed. For this purpose, a mapping of local actors was used with a Social Network Analysis, a description of the de facto banana value chain and it was analyzed under the Governance Analytical Framework. There is evidence of a productive system with well differentiated areas in terms of technological development, integration of chain links, articulation of institutions, organizational processes, access to national and international markets, and agro-industrial transformation processes. The articulation and cooperation between inter-institutional actors have been critical for development of collective actions to optimize resources, time, processes, and maximize the generated impact. The Caldas roundtables competitiveness emerge and position themselves as a consolidated space for territorial governance, which in turn catalyzes articulation dynamics and institutional interventions to enhance the resources of value chains and territories.

Livestock in Colombia is carried out in large areas, in 2022 about 633.841 farms and 29.301.392 animals were reported. Traditional systems with low technology generate a negative impact on soils, affecting physical and chemical conditions. Therefore, it is important to implement management alternatives that guarantee sustainability and profitability. Through an alliance between FAO and AGROSAVIA, the effect of the three systems was evaluated during two periods of time: silvopastoral with an arrangement in a strip-grazing pasture (SPS), silvopastoral with grasslands renewal (GRS), and traditional grazing on grasslands (TS), on physical and chemical properties of the soil. A split-plot experimental design was used, a two-way multivariate analysis of variance (two-way MANOVA) was applied (productive system and sampling time), and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a 5% Tukey's test. Using the ArcGIS® Pro 2.9.0 (ESRI®) software, the results of the previously georeferenced samplings were interpolated, using the inverse distance weighting technique (IDW) and the Moran's Index, to verify the type of distribution of the variables influenced by the factors. The MANOVA indicated that individual factors had a significant effect on electrical conductivity (EC), Na, and P, and interaction of factors on Fe, Cu, Mn, particle density (PD), and moisture retention (MR). On the other hand, through the ANOVA, significant differences were identified, registering higher EC, P, MR, and lower PD in SPS, higher content of Fe and Mn in GRS and Cu in TS.

The cyanobacteria Nostoc commune contains bioactive compounds with antimicrobial activity and high potential to control of phytopathogens. The objective of this work was to determine the in vitro effect of sonicated biomass of these cyanobacteria on the growth of Fusarium oxysporum. The biomass of N.commune was dissolved in sterile distilled water and subjected to centrifugation processes and ultrasound-assisted cell rupture. The antifungal effect was evaluated using the disk diffusion technique (Kirby-Bauer) in a PDA (Potato Dextrose Agar) medium. In the center of the Petri dish, an agar disk (0.7 cm) with pure mycelium of the fungus was placed in the center of the Petri dish and, around it, four filter paper disk impregnateed with the algae extract (0.7 cm) were placed. The radial growth of the pathogen was measured in the presence and absence of N. commune, until the control covered the entire Petri dish to assess the Percentage of Radial Inhibition of the pathogen (PICR %). The growth rate of the fungus was lower in the initial stages of measurement and the PICR fluctuated between 33 and 58%. However, there were no inhibition halos in the growth of the fungus, it is assumed that the antifungal effect of the cyanobacteria was not permanent over the time, but it could be potentiated by improving the extraction process of the extract.