Agro-Ecoregions

Agro-Ecoregions

Agro-ecoregions are human-managed ecosystems: The rainfall has been modified by irrigation, the temperature by greenhouses, the soils by adding fertilizers and other amendments, and the plants are, of course, mainly crops and livestock useful to us as food, fiber and fuel. New Mexico has a long history of farming and irrigation that greatly intensified with tractors, massive dams and piping, groundwater pumping, European sheep, goats, cattle and horses; petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides; and crop breeding. Today, there are six distinct agro-ecoregions each with many micro-climates.

They extend into parts of other states as well as Mexico. For each agro-ecoregion, the map lists the main sources of irrigation and most profitable crops. Look at your agro-ecoregion and what grows best within it, and see which crops/livestock could be locally raises and processed. New Mexico agro-ecoregions include the Colorado Plateau, the Southern Rockies, the High Plains, the Central Plains, the Arid Lowlands and the Transition Mountain and Plateaus.