AgroCol_VOL27_3final.pdf


EDITORIAL

Agronomía Colombiana 27(3), 287-288, 2009

Seeking to potentiate its publishing activity, Agro-nomía Colombiana has been incorporated to the recently founded Editorial Center of the Faculty of 
Agronomy. In this way, we expect the production of local 
and foreigner professors and researchers to keep up to its 
highly innovative and qualified level, for which it is amply 
recognized in the agricultural sector. 

Said implementation has also changed the composition of 
the journal’s Editorial Board, which is also the Consulting 
Committee of the Editorial Center of the Faculty. In effect, 
now we count with the participation of professors Gustavo 
Ligarreto, Luis J. Martínez, Iván Montoya and Guido Plaza 
as new members of the Editorial Board, in charge of ac-
companying the publishing activity of the journal and the 
Editorial Center. Also, we want to thank the collaboration 
of professors María Isabel Chacón and Víctor Julio Flórez, 
who were active members of our staff group.

As an innovative improvement of our dissemination stra-
tegy, the journal is now available through the UN journal 
portal (Sinab), which not only allows accessing the full text 
of its recent articles, but also the submission of articles to 
the journal, and online interaction of the publishing team. 
Along these lines, and seeking to strengthen its cultural 
exchange and scientific production dissemination activity, 
the journal will soon enter the Scientific Journal Network 
of Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal (a 
Scientific information system known as Redalyc –Red de 
Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe, España 
y Portugal–), from Universidad Autónoma del Estado de 
México.

In this number we present several articles in the “Breeding, 
genetic resources and molecular biology” section, which 
are the result of breeding research programs on important 
products such as cassava, pea and diploid potato. Due to 
its special gourmet quality, the latter is a unique product, 
although difficult to export. This has led researchers of 
Universidad Nacional de Colombia to develop a series of 
more productive varieties that still maintain their culi-
nary quality, and are more suitable for exportation. Also, 

a review on the historical and current trends of cultivated 
potato taxonomy is included. 

Cassava being a high starch content crop, its industriali-
zation has recently raised special interest. For this reason, 
we present an article on starch quality of plants irradiated 
with gamma rays and neutrons from Co60. 

Within breeding programs, it is important to characterize 
the existing germplasm, in order to determine the mate-
rials that can contribute features of interest. Regarding pea 
genetic resources, such topic is approached by two papers, 
the first of which presents an innovative classification of 
85 accessions, while the second one establishes heritability 
of widely grown cultivars. 

In the section about “Propagation and tissue culture”, two 
works tackle propagation methods adapted to crop charac-
teristics. In the case of cape gooseberry, which is usually 
propagated by seed, propagation by cuttings with the aid 
of hormones and substrates seems to be a suitable way to 
overcome undesirable variability of certain crop features. 
A more complex technique is tissue culture itself, which is 
developed in the article on micro propagation of ‘frailejon’ 
(Espeletiopsis muiska), due to its contribution to rapidly 
spreading this type of wild species.

Agronomic crop management is continuously seeking more 
exact techniques in face of diverse  environmental or bio-
logical conditions. Thus, in the “Crop physiology” section 
we introduce a plantain potential production model, and 
an assessment of mango fruit quality and productivity as 
affected by different scion and interstock materials.

The “Crop protection” section contains three topics, namely 
plagues, weeds and diseases. Macrosiphum euphorbiae is a 
plague with numerous hosts, among which there are several 
ornamental crops. Praon pos. occidentale is a parasitoid that 
rose spontaneously in the flower and vegetable greenhouses 
of the Bogota Plateau. As a contribution to the knowledge 
about this biological controller, this section presents a paper 
on its biology and reproductive cycle. 



288 Agron. Colomb. 27(3) 2009

In addition, and as a complement to the flower growing 
activity, the weed community associated to cut roses in 
greenhouses was diagnosed, resulting Cardamine hirsuta 
and Pennisetum clandestinum as the dominant species. 

Finally, an evaluation of the control of Rhizoctonia through 
the presence of antagonists like Trichoderma in the myco-
flora of two different substrates completes the section.

Table tomato is the most abundantly consumed vegetable 
worldwide. Its ample variety of forms, colors and sizes has 
turned this product into a central culinary attraction at all 
social levels. Along these lines, the section on “Postharvest 
physiology and technology” brings in a research study on 
those features of cherry tomato that render better post 
mechanical harvest resistance. 

In the section on “Soils, fertilization and water management” 
the paper on multi-stage filtration of residual water looks 
for more enduring high frequency irrigation alternatives.

To conclude the present volume, we have included a di-
fferent type of publication, which are the scientific notes. 

They consist in short, unique topics of crucial importance. 
Such is the case of the reporting of Faustinus sp., an insect 
that has been found plaguing tomato crops in Southeastern 
Brazil. For Colombia, this insect has already been reported 
in the Cauca Valley.

With the series of works introduced in this number, our 
readers will be in broader contact with international co-
authors in tropical agriculture topics, thus conferring our 
journal more advanced levels of recognition. 

Finally, we advice authors who intend to base their docu-
ments for publication on undergraduate or master’s the-
ses, newsletters, leaflets, reports and bulletins not to do 
it, because this type of literature is simply not globally 
recognized or consulted, and will negatively affect their 
works. Likewise, we recommend all authors to unify the 
way they write their names in all their papers, so that their 
production can be easily identified in their area of research. 
The staff of Agronomía Colombiana hopes to continue im-
proving the quality and visibility of your publications, as to 
keep your preference on us when it comes to disseminate 
your works.

Gerhard Fischer
Director and Editor