EVALUATION OF THE SUSTAINABILITY OF TWO TYPES OF Agave tequilana Weber var. blue AGROECOSYSTEMS IN TEQUILA, JALISCO

Abstract

Tequila is an alcoholic beverage that must be produced exclusively from the species Agave tequilana Weber var. azul (blue) and only in regions with certification of origin within Mexico. The “Tequila Boom” began in 1992, making it a popular beverage in several countries, including Mexico. This boosted exports, production, and the expansion of blue agave plantation areas, which had negative social, economic, and environmental consequences in producing regions and for agave farmers. The aim of the study was to evaluate the degree of sustainability of the Agave tequilana crop in two types of agroecosystems: monoculture and polyculture. The research hypothesis was that the A. tequilana polyculture agroecosystem is more sustainable than monoculture. A random sample of agave farmers from the municipality of Tequila, Jalisco, was surveyed and distributed equally: 25 agave farmers who practice monoculture and 25 who practice polyculture. The methodology was based on and adapted from the Framework for the Evaluation of the Natural Resource Management Systems incorporating Sustainability Indices (MESMIS), which was used to create a Composite Sustainability Indicator for A. tequilana (ICSAT) to compare both agroecosystems. The results show that polyculture is more sustainable than monoculture in 13 of the 15 indicators evaluated. Polyculture displayed a sustainability level of 77.06 % in the Composite Sustainability Indicator, whereas monoculture had 58.43 %. Our conclusion is that the evaluation of sustainability helped to determine that the Agave tequilana polyculture agroecosystem is more sustainable than monoculture.