What do we know about the country’s tomatoes? Three researchers delved into the history of the local Limachino tomato

Researchers from the Institute of Agricultural Research – La Platina and La Cruz (INIA), published this month in the Ibero-American Journal of Viticulture, Agroindustry and Rurality, a review on the cultivation of the local tomato from Lima

Lorenzo Palma, Science in Chile.- Studying the history of the tomato and, especially, of the Limachino tomato, is relevant because local varieties play a key role in agricultural sustainability, food security, nutrition and the future improvement of crops, explains Dr. Erika Salazar, PhD in Agricultural Sciences and researcher at INIA, specialist in the conservation of genetic resources.

“In the country there is little historical information on local food products. Including that of the tomato, which is one of the most consumed vegetables worldwide”, commented Ing. Agr. Adolf Donoso. The massification of reduced commercial varieties, such as the tomato options that one finds in fairs and supermarkets, puts genetic diversity at risk, and with it, that food in the future will not withstand changes in the climate, as a consequence of climate change. .

Commercial varieties respond better to irrigation, fertilizers, pest control and mechanization of harvest and transport, however, knowing the origin and existing local varieties in a territory is key, INIA researchers comment, since a greater genetic diversity allows addressing best way the local adaptation problems faced by commercial varieties.

As a data of interest in the scientific publication recently published in the RIVAR magazine of the University of Chile, the tomato only began to be consumed in Europe at the end of the 17th century due to the fear of the presence of toxic alkaloids; however, in Latin America there is a report dating back to 1653 in Lima from a Jesuit named Bernabé Cobo y Peralta, a chronicler of the time, who reports that since he settled in the city in 1596 the tomato was widely cultivated for consumption, pointing out its cultivation before the arrival of the Spaniards, and differentiating it from wild tomatoes because it is the size of a lime, and exists in both red, yellow and green. .

Limache

The Limachino tomato was traditionally harvested very early, a distinctive characteristic of this local variety along with its flavor and aroma. Many people still comment that they miss the peculiar flavor and juiciness of this tomato. It was during the first half of the 20th century that, given its precocity, the Limachino tomato became massive in Santiago, as it was able to arrive before the tomato grown further north in the city of La Serena. It is known that Limache was a commune that in 1955 represented 163 small-area tomato growers, many more than in other areas, the origin of the Limachino tomato being, according to genetic studies carried out at INIA, in the hands of these tomato growers. Making it cultural and social heritage of the Limache commune, having originated as part of a historical social process.

Among the lessons that history can give us is that in 1957 the same situation is experienced by farmers today, where intermediaries paid farmers $12 pesos per box of tomatoes, while in the wholesale markets of Santiago they sold for $100 pesos per box of tomatoes. From 1960 it was slowly displaced, until it practically disappeared. The main reason was its short post-harvest life, a problem that is manageable today. It is in 2015 that with FIA financing, INIA La Cruz begins an expedition in the Marga-Marga valley, managing to find 4 farmers with reserves of the local tomato seed from Lima.

The molecular and compositional characterization work has allowed us to postulate that this tomato has its origin from the hybridization of local tomatoes with European tomatoes introduced at the end of the 18th century. This background, combined with the rescue of traditional cultivation practices, has made that this tomato once again becomes a commercial option for the small farmers of Valle de Marga Marga, by producing a different tomato with an important historical content, components valued by current consumers, as documented in the article analyzed here.

Additionally, this work provides interesting historical data on the possible center of origin of the tomato, something that has not yet been fully elucidated.

You can download the publication here:

https://revistarivar.cl/images/vol9-n27/art13.pdf