82-523: Jinotega ( Spanish pronunciation: [xinoˈteɣa] ) (derived from Náhuatl: Xiotenko ‘place next to the jiñocuajo trees’) is the capital city of the Department of Jinotega in north-central Nicaragua . The city is located in a long valley surrounded by the cool climate and Dariense Isabelia ridge located 142 km north of the capital Managua . In 2012, the Department of Jinotega had
164-556: A British man named Potter who owned these properties at the time. The hospitable climate and the dedication of its producers have allowed Jinotega coffee to reach some of the highest levels of quality in the world. Thus, Jinotega has won national and international competitions for excellence in coffee production, surpassing Matagalpa, Boaco, Estelí and the department of Madriz in quality; and internationally, Venezuela, Colombia and even Brazil. Contests have been organized in Jinotega, such as
246-612: A Viennese-style casino. Both the furniture and the velvet curtains, the pool tables, the bowling alleys, the wheels of fortune, etc. They came directly from Germany. In the late 1920s, Mr. Gülke also brought the first motor vehicle to Jinotega, which was driven by Mr. Rafael Hernández. In the mid-1960s, businessman Asunción (Chón) Molina Rodríguez set up a coffee and corn processing factory. His products included ground coffee, corn chips, and tortillas, all of which were exported throughout Central America, expertly vacuum-packed. The factory employed more than 200 people. The coffee trade, known as
328-814: A conventional breeding program to provide optimized strains. The program began in the 1980s. Hybrid seeds are distributed in Africa by its Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project. Tropical landraces remain an important and underused source of resistance alleles – both those for disease and for herbivores . Such alleles can then be introgressed into productive varieties. Rare alleles for this purpose were discovered by Dao and Sood, both in 2014. In 2018, Zerka Rashid of CIMMYT used its association mapping panel, developed for tropical drought tolerance traits. to find new genomic regions providing sorghum downy mildew resistance , and to further characterize known differentially methylated regions . Genetically modified maize
410-403: A corn head (with points and snap rolls instead of a reel) does not cut the stalk; it simply pulls the stalk down. The stalk continues downward and is crumpled into a mangled pile on the ground, where it usually is left to become organic matter for the soil . The ear of maize is too large to pass between slots in a plate as the snap rolls pull the stalk away, leaving only the ear and husk to enter
492-508: A good winter). Public lighting service covers only 90% of the city and only 30% in rural areas. In some rural communities, they do not have access to electricity, particularly in dry zones such as La Ermita de Saraguasca and nearby places located 5 kilometers west of Las Lomas, despite the Larreynaga and Central America Power Plant located just 5 kilometers away. There are three universities in Jinotega, and one technical school: Jinotega
574-540: A king who was advised by a council of elders. Indigenous kings where called caciques as an umbrella term by the Spanish, although truthfully caciques were unique to the Taíno and kings were not called this term by Jinoteganos. The religion was polytheistic; they had a pantheon of gods of the air, thunder, lightning, rain, harvest, and more. Agriculture consisted mainly of the cultivation of corn , legumes , cocoa , and
656-408: A large cob. Yellow maizes derive their color from carotenoids ; red maizes are colored by anthocyanins and phlobaphenes ; and orange and green varieties may contain combinations of these pigments. Maize has short-day photoperiodism , meaning that it requires nights of a certain length to flower. Flowering further requires enough warm days above 10 °C (50 °F). The control of flowering
738-499: A measure of protection against a wide range of pests. Because of its shallow roots, maize is susceptible to droughts, intolerant of nutrient-deficient soils, and prone to being uprooted by severe winds. Maize is diploid with 20 chromosomes . 83% of allelic variation within the genome derives from its teosinte ancestors, primarily due to the freedom of Zea species to outcross . Barbara McClintock used maize to validate her transposon theory of "jumping genes", for which she won
820-638: A place but a condition, a savage rather than a civilized grain". International groups such as the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International consider maize the preferred common name. The word maize is used by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization , and in the names of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center of Mexico, the Indian Institute of Maize Research,
902-601: A plant that uses C 4 carbon fixation , maize is a considerably more water-efficient crop than plants that use C 3 carbon fixation such as alfalfa and soybeans . Maize is most sensitive to drought at the time of silk emergence, when the flowers are ready for pollination. In the United States, a good harvest was traditionally predicted if the maize was "knee-high by the Fourth of July ", although modern hybrids generally exceed this growth rate. Maize used for silage
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#1732765109952984-527: A total population of 417,372, of which 123,548 lived in the municipality. Of the total population, 50.5% are men and 49.5% are women, and almost 38.4% of the population lives in the urban area. Jinotega produces 80% of Nicaragua's coffee, which is exported to the United States , Russia , Canada and Europe . Within the city of Jinotega are several rivers and a lake. Lake Apanas, an artificial lake of 51 square kilometers, provides hydropower to much of
1066-517: Is Chorotegan. According to the German linguist Walter Lehmann, the language of the indigenous people of Jinotega and Matagalpa belonged to the Macro-Chibcha family. The settlement of Jinotega was established in the middle of a cauldron-shaped mountainous valley by indigenous people in pre-Columbian times. There is quite a bit of controversy about its original settlers; for some historians,
1148-477: Is a problem in Asia. Some fungal diseases of maize produce potentially dangerous mycotoxins such as aflatoxin . In the United States, major diseases include tar spot , bacterial leaf streak , gray leaf spot , northern corn leaf blight, and Goss's wilt ; in 2022, the most damaging disease was tar spot, which caused losses of 116.8 million bushels . Maize sustains a billion dollars' worth of losses annually in
1230-674: Is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain . It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte . Native Americans planted it alongside beans and squashes in the Three Sisters polyculture . The leafy stalk of the plant gives rise to male inflorescences or tassels which produce pollen , and female inflorescences called ears . The ears yield grain, known as kernels or seeds. In modern commercial varieties, these are usually yellow or white; other varieties can be of many colors. Maize relies on humans for its propagation. Since
1312-408: Is composed of transposons , contains 32,540 genes. Much of it has been duplicated and reshuffled by helitrons , a group of transposable elements within maize's DNA. Maize breeding in prehistory resulted in large plants producing large ears. Modern breeding began with individuals who selected highly productive varieties in their fields and then sold seed to other farmers. James L. Reid was one of
1394-537: Is cultivated throughout the world; a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain. In 2020, world production was 1.1 billion tonnes. It is afflicted by many pests and diseases ; two major insect pests, European corn borer and corn rootworms , have each caused annual losses of a billion dollars in the US. Modern plant breeding has greatly increased output and qualities such as nutrition, drought tolerance, and tolerance of pests and diseases. Much maize
1476-414: Is harvested while the plant is green and the fruit immature. Sweet corn is harvested in the "milk stage", after pollination but before starch has formed, between late summer and early to mid-autumn. Field maize is left in the field until very late in the autumn to thoroughly dry the grain, and may, in fact, sometimes not be harvested until winter or even early spring. The importance of sufficient soil moisture
1558-533: Is now genetically modified . As a food, maize is used to make a wide variety of dishes including Mexican tortillas and tamales , Italian polenta , and American hominy grits . Maize protein is low in some essential amino acids , and the niacin it contains only becomes available if freed by alkali treatment . In Mesoamerica, maize is deified as a maize god and depicted in sculptures. Maize requires human intervention for it to propagate. The kernels of its naturally-propagating teosinte ancestor fall off
1640-539: Is perhaps the most war-torn region in Nicaragua's history. Its remote location as well as its proximity to the border with Honduras made it a haven for rebel forces throughout the last seven decades. The most intense battles took place in the Department of Jinotega between 1927 and 1934 under Augusto C. Sandino and his troops (popularly known as " los bandoleros ") against the American occupation troops. Later, at
1722-468: Is set genetically; the physiological mechanism involves the phytochrome system. Tropical cultivars can be problematic if grown in higher latitudes, as the longer days can make the plants grow tall instead of setting seed before winter comes. On the other hand, growing tall rapidly could be convenient for producing biofuel. Immature maize shoots accumulate a powerful antibiotic substance, 2,4-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-1,4-benzoxazin-3-one ( DIMBOA ), which provides
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#17327651099521804-498: Is shown in many parts of Africa, where periodic drought regularly causes maize crop failure and consequent famine . Although it is grown mainly in wet, hot climates, it can thrive in cold, hot, dry or wet conditions, meaning that it is an extremely versatile crop. Maize was planted by the Native Americans in small hills of soil, in the polyculture system called the Three Sisters . Maize provided support for beans ;
1886-557: Is the domesticated variant of the four species of teosintes , which are its crop wild relatives . The teosinte origin theory was proposed by the Russian botanist Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov in 1931, and the American Nobel Prize -winner George Beadle in 1932. The two plants have dissimilar appearance, maize having a single tall stalk with multiple leaves and teosinte being a short, bushy plant. The difference between
1968-405: Is the leaf most closely associated with a particular developing ear. This leaf and those above it contribute over three quarters of the carbohydrate ( starch ) that fills the grain. The grains are usually yellow or white in modern varieties; other varieties have orange, red, brown, blue , purple , or black grains. They are arranged in 8 to 32 rows around the cob; there can be up to 1200 grains on
2050-459: Is twinned with: Departments of Nicaragua Nicaragua is a unitary republic , divided for administrative purposes into fifteen departments ( Spanish : departamentos ) and two autonomous regions ( Spanish : regiones autónomas ). In 1987, the new constitution established the Charter of Autonomy (limited self-government) for the former department of Zelaya , comprising
2132-507: The bursera simaruba trees in the region, which are today known as jiñocuajo or jiñocuabo trees, a balsamic tree to which the natives of Jinotega attributed great medicinal properties. The Nahuas and Chorotegas revered the jiñocuajo as a tree of eternity and wisdom. According to historian Eddy Kühl Aráuz, the name Jinotega does not come from the Nahuatl language, since the indigenous people of this area (Jinotega, Matagalpa and Muy Muy) spoke
2214-612: The Balsas River valley in Mexico's southwestern highlands, as the crop wild relative genetically most similar to modern maize. The middle part of the short Balsas River valley is the likely location of early domestication. Stone milling tools with maize residue have been found in an 8,700 year old layer of deposits in a cave not far from Iguala, Guerrero . Doebley and colleagues showed in 2002 that maize had been domesticated only once, about 9,000 years ago, and then spread throughout
2296-705: The Columbian exchange , it has become a staple food in many parts of the world, with the total production of maize surpassing that of wheat and rice . Much maize is used for animal feed , whether as grain or as the whole plant, which can either be baled or made into the more palatable silage . Sugar-rich varieties called sweet corn are grown for human consumption, while field corn varieties are used for animal feed, for uses such as cornmeal or masa , corn starch , corn syrup , pressing into corn oil , alcoholic beverages like bourbon whiskey , and as chemical feedstocks including ethanol and other biofuels . Maize
2378-481: The Nicaraguan Revolution . Jinotega is a major supplier of coffee for Nicaragua and for other countries. The basic grains (corn, beans, and wheat), vegetables (tomato, lettuce, onion, cabbage, parsley, radish, celery, broccoli, potatoes, taro, carrot, cucumber), fruit (bananas), and livestock (cattle, pigs and goats) all contribute to its economy. There is also sizable cocoa production. At the end of
2460-405: The "golden grain", like that of basic grains, depends mainly on intermediaries who are responsible for collecting the product, storing it and then looking for points of sale. The marketing of vegetables in the town has not changed for many years. Traded directly by the plantation, the produce is transported to markets to find buyers. The cattle are sold by the owners directly to the national market in
2542-607: The 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine . Maize remains an important model organism for genetics and developmental biology . The MADS-box motif is involved in the development of maize flowers. The Maize Genetics and Genomics Database is funded by the US Department of Agriculture to support maize research. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center maintains a large collection of maize accessions tested and cataloged for insect resistance. In 2005,
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2624-479: The 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the economy of Jinotega received a great boost with the cultivation of coffee, which attracted national and foreign entrepreneurs, particularly among the nationals of Granada, León, but also German foreigners and the British. One of the first and largest coffee producers in northern Nicaragua was the community of "La Fundadora" in the municipality of Jinotega run by
2706-662: The Americas. Maize pollen dated to 7,300 years ago from San Andres, Tabasco has been found on the Caribbean coast. A primitive corn was being grown in southern Mexico, Central America, and northern South America 7,000 years ago. Archaeological remains of early maize ears, found at Guila Naquitz Cave in the Oaxaca Valley , are roughly 6,250 years old; the oldest ears from caves near Tehuacan , Puebla, are 5,450 years old. Around 4,500 years ago, maize began to spread to
2788-479: The B-vitamin niacin , the lack of which caused pellagra . Once alkali processing and dietary variety were understood and applied, pellagra disappeared in the developed world. The development of high- lysine maize and the promotion of a more balanced diet have contributed to its demise. Pellagra still exists in food-poor areas and refugee camps where people survive on donated maize. The name maize derives from
2870-585: The Baptist as patron spirit at the city's center, the place that is today the central park where the town hall is located. In the mid-sixteenth century, the interpreters who accompanied the Spanish military and missionaries desired to nahualize the names in the region of Jinotega, but at least 80% of the place names remained in the Matagalpa language, such as names ending in lí (“river”), güina (“people”), cayán (“hill”), apa (“hill”), etc., which are very common in
2952-486: The Cup of Excellence, because this department is one of the most awarded for this contest at an international level, of which it has been the winner 5 times. Coffee cultivation is mainly represented by small and medium producers for 90%, the rest in the hands of large producers. The department produces 65% Nicaraguan coffee, high quality coffee thanks to the optimal agro-ecological conditions for its cultivation, which make Jinotega
3034-709: The Maize Association of Australia, the National Maize Association of Nigeria, the National Maize Association of Ghana, the Maize Trust of South Africa, and the Zimbabwe Seed Maize Association. Maize is a tall annual grass with a single stem, ranging in height from 1.2 m (4 ft) to 4 m (13 ft). The long narrow leaves arise from the nodes or joints, alternately on opposite sides on
3116-626: The Misumalpa language, as they were not of Mesoamerican origin like the Mangues (Chorotegas) and the Nahua peoples who inhabited the Pacific area of present-day Nicaragua. However, despite Kühl's claims, there are in fact Nahua people who inhabit Jinotega, therefore a Nahuatl etymology remains a possibility. The historian Julián Guerrero, in his work "Jinotega Monograph" affirms that the word Jinotega
3198-480: The Spanish form maíz of the Taíno mahis . The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus used the common name maize as the species epithet in Zea mays . The name maize is preferred in formal, scientific, and international usage as a common name because it refers specifically to this one grain, unlike corn , which has a complex variety of meanings that vary by context and geographic region. Most countries primarily use
3280-504: The US National Science Foundation , Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Energy formed a consortium to sequence the maize genome . The resulting DNA sequence data was deposited immediately into GenBank , a public repository for genome-sequence data. Sequencing of the maize genome was completed in 2008. In 2009, the consortium published results of its sequencing effort. The genome, 85% of which
3362-534: The US from each of two major insect pests , namely the European corn borer or ECB ( Ostrinia nubilalis ) and corn rootworms ( Diabrotica spp ) western corn rootworm , northern corn rootworm , and southern corn rootworm . Another serious pest is the fall armyworm ( Spodoptera frugiperda ). The maize weevil ( Sitophilus zeamais ) is a serious pest of stored grain. The Northern armyworm, Oriental armyworm or Rice ear-cutting caterpillar ( Mythimna separata )
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3444-418: The beans provided nitrogen derived from nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria which live on the roots of beans and other legumes ; and squashes provided ground cover to stop weeds and inhibit evaporation by providing shade over the soil. Sweet corn, harvested earlier than maize grown for grain, grows to maturity in a period of from 60 to 100 days according to variety. An extended sweet corn harvest, picked at
3526-613: The body of Christ. Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates. It was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbus's voyages and then spread to Italy, West Africa and elsewhere. By the 17th century, it was a common peasant food in Southern Europe. By the 18th century, it was the chief food of the southern French and Italian peasantry, especially as polenta in Italy. When maize
3608-482: The capital of coffee. This product is exported to Canada, the United States, Europe and Russia. Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the city of Jinotega was full of commerce: in the 19th century, the national government passed a law with the aim of motivating foreign investors to grow coffee in Nicaragua. English, German, Danish and North American entrepreneurs later settled in Jinotega. German businessman Heinrich (Henry) Gülke founded
3690-526: The category of village by the government of Nicaragua. In July 1872, the scientist Thomas Belt left Santo Domingo de Chontales in search of miners for the Nueva Segovia gold mines near the Honduran border. On this trip he visited Jinotega and called it by its original name, and not by "Santas Rosas, San Juanes, Santos Tomases" and explained that the inhabitants "cling to their old names" and not to
3772-403: The census, like Gadea, Duarte, Altamirano, Castro, Alburquerque, and Fray Juan de Zeledon. Zeledon is said to have invited his nephews to the city, who have descendants who that still live there: some of them are Zeledon of La Concordia, Umure and Ocotal Espeso and Pacsila, idilic communities located between the cities of Matagalpa and Jinotega. On April 5, 1851, the city of Jinotega was elevated to
3854-496: The central and northern region of the country. Starting in 1690, the first Spanish settlers settled near the city. In 1703 the Spanish missioner Fray Margil de Jesús visited Jinotega and noted that there was still no permanent Spanish presence. He had a large cross placed on the highest point of Cerro Chirinagua, on the western outskirts of the city. Today it is a place for hiking, illuminated at night, called Cerro de la Cruz. By 1731 there were some permanent Spanish surnames listed in
3936-577: The cob on their own, while those of domesticated maize do not. All maize arose from a single domestication in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. The oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Maize spread from this region to the lowlands and over the Americas along two major paths. The centre of domestication was most likely the Balsas River valley of south-central Mexico. Maize reached highland Ecuador at least 8000 years ago. It reached lower Central America by 7600 years ago, and
4018-452: The country. Although there is debate as to the origin of the name, Jinotega is colloquially known as "The City of Mists" ( Ciudad de la Brumas ) for the magnificent whisks of clouds continuously feathering through the top of the valley. Other generally accepted names are "The Eternal City of Men", and the "City of Eternal Men". Jinotega is bordered to the The climate is subtropical and tropical in
4100-425: The earliest and most successful, developing Reid's Yellow Dent in the 1860s. These early efforts were based on mass selection (a row of plants is grown from seeds of one parent), and the choosing of plants after pollination (which means that only the female parents are known). Later breeding efforts included ear to row selection (C. G. Hopkins c. 1896), hybrids made from selected inbred lines (G. H. Shull, 1909), and
4182-522: The early immigration from Mexico and for that reason, he believed that Jinotega has its roots in the capital of the Mexica people, in Tenochtitlán. A Spanish census in 1581 listed Jinotega as a completely indigenous town with no Spanish presence, however it was still claimed as Spanish territory and named "San Juan de Jinotega" in 1606 by a Catholic shaman named Juan de Albuquerque. Juan chose Saint John
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#17327651099524264-609: The end of the 1970s, Jinotega was a key battleground in the bitter war between the troops of Anastasio Somoza Debayle and the civilian rebel population. Starting on May 19, 1979, the "Final Offensive" of the Sandinista National Liberation Front 's Carlos Fonseca Amador Northern Front began against the Somoza Debayle regime. Somoza was defeated on July 19, 1979. After a short period of peace, civil war began again between government troops of
4346-454: The ending -tenko , which means "on the edge of or next to"; and the demonym suffix -katl . Therefore, xiotenko means "place next to the jiñocuabos" and xiotenkatl , "neighbor of the jiñocuajos". The ending -tenko or "neighbors" is similar in function to the ending "ville" or "land" in English. The latter is probably the most accurate of the translations, because there is an abundance of
4428-413: The entire ear is harvested, which requires a separate operation of a maize sheller to remove the kernels from the ear. Whole ears of maize were often stored in corn cribs , sufficient for some livestock feeding uses. Today corn cribs with whole ears, and corn binders, are less common because most modern farms harvest the grain from the field with a combine harvester and store it in bins . The combine with
4510-724: The entire eastern half of the country. The department was divided into two autonomous regions (communities): the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region and the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region . The Charter of Autonomy is largely based on the model used by Spain . The communities are governed by a Governor and a Regional Council. Maize Maize / m eɪ z / ( Zea mays ), also known as corn in North American English ,
4592-774: The expansion of the Inca Empire , maize was traded and transported as far south as 40° S in Melinquina, Lácar Department , Argentina, probably brought across the Andes from Chile. After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize, and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe . Spanish settlers much preferred wheat bread to maize. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for communion bread, since in Christian belief at that time only wheat could undergo transubstantiation and be transformed into
4674-431: The harvest of roots and edible fruits. Corn was the staple of the diet. Among the animals they hunted for food were turkey, quail, agouti , guardatinaja (a species of agouti particular to Nicaragua) and deer. The indigenous people of Jinotega wove their clothes using cotton , the bark fibers of certain trees, as well as leather, all colored with inks and dyes extracted from local plants and animals. They were well known in
4756-614: The high valleys, dry in summer, rainy in winter and cool in the mountains. The name Jinotega is believed by some to derive from the Nahuatl word xinotencátl . Linguists disagree on the meaning of this word. Some interpret it as "City of the Eternal Men", whereas others translate it as "neighbors of the Jiñocuajo trees". The term probably comes from xiotl , originally from the word xiokwawtli , which means jiñocuabo or mangy tree;
4838-532: The highly successful double cross hybrids using four inbred lines ( D. F. Jones c. 1918, 1922). University-supported breeding programs were especially important in developing and introducing modern hybrids. Since the 1940s, the best strains of maize have been first-generation hybrids made from inbred strains that have been optimized for specific traits, such as yield, nutrition, drought, pest and disease tolerance. Both conventional cross-breeding and genetic engineering have succeeded in increasing output and reducing
4920-495: The history of the word corn in North America that "[t]o say the word corn is to plunge into the tragi-farcical mistranslations of language and history". Similar to the British usage, the Spanish referred to maize as panizo , a generic term for cereal grains, as did Italians with the term polenta . The British later referred to maize as Turkey wheat, Turkey corn, or Indian corn; Fussell comments that "they meant not
5002-419: The machinery. The combine separates the husk and the cob, keeping only the kernels. Drying is vital to prevent or at least reduce damage by mould fungi, which contaminate the grain with mycotoxins . Aspergillus and Fusarium spp. are the most common mycotoxin sources, and accordingly important in agriculture. If the moisture content of the harvested grain is too high, grain dryers are used to reduce
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#17327651099525084-413: The milk stage, can be arranged either by planting a selection of varieties which ripen earlier and later, or by planting different areas at fortnightly intervals. Maize harvested as a grain crop can be kept in the field a relatively long time, even months, after the crop is ready to harvest; it can be harvested and stored in the husk leaves if kept dry. Before World War II , most maize in North America
5166-427: The moisture content by blowing heated air through the grain. This can require large amounts of energy in the form of combustible gases ( propane or natural gas ) and electricity to power the blowers. Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain. In 2020, total world production was 1.16 billion tonnes , led by the United States with 31.0% of
5248-608: The natives of this region were descendants of the Mayangna people of the Chontales Department , from the Caribbean of the Atlantic coast; other believe the aborigines of the region were Chorotega -speaking people, and therefore, Mesoamericans. The chroniclers listed the first possible inhabitants of the central and northern part of the country as one or more of the following: The government of Jinotega consisted of
5330-501: The need for cropland, pesticides, water and fertilizer. There is conflicting evidence to support the hypothesis that maize yield potential has increased over the past few decades. This suggests that changes in yield potential are associated with leaf angle, lodging resistance, tolerance of high plant density, disease/pest tolerance, and other agronomic traits rather than increase of yield potential per individual plant. Certain varieties of maize have been bred to produce many ears; these are
5412-617: The new Sandinista regime and the Contra rebels who felt betrayed by the Sandinistas and were funded by the United States. In 1981, the mountainous area of the department was again the scene of a fratricidal war, this time between the Contras and carried out bloodily by the FSLN, emerging from anti-communist sentiment and dissatisfaction with the corruption of Sandino's government, continuing
5494-400: The new crop. The rise in maize cultivation 500 to 1,000 years ago in what is now the southeastern United States corresponded with a decline of freshwater mussels , which are very sensitive to environmental changes. Because it is cold-intolerant, in the temperate zones maize must be planted in the spring. Its root system is generally shallow, so the plant is dependent on soil moisture. As
5576-465: The north. In the United States, maize was first cultivated at several sites in New Mexico and Arizona about 4,100 years ago. During the first millennium AD, maize cultivation spread more widely in the areas north. In particular, the large-scale adoption of maize agriculture and consumption in eastern North America took place about A.D. 900. Native Americans cleared large forest and grassland areas for
5658-547: The ones imposed by the Spanish. In other words, the Spanish name is "San Juan" and the true name is "Jinotega". On February 11, 1883, the title of town was granted to Jinotega. According to historians, the first car in the city belonged to the German Enrique Heinrich Gülke and the first women's bicycle arrived in the city in 1933, as a gift from the German immigrant Luis Ludwig Frenzel to his daughter Hulda for her fifteenth birthday. The Jinotega region
5740-760: The presence of Starlink genetically modified corn, which had been approved only for animal consumption. The maize genus Zea is relatively closely related to sorghum , both being in the PACMAD clade of Old World grasses, and much more distantly to rice and wheat , which are in the other major group of grasses, the BOP clade . It is closely related to Tripsacum , gamagrass. various grasses e.g. fescue , ryegrass Hordeum (barley) Triticum (wheat) Oryza (rice) Pennisetum (fountaingrasses) Sorghum (sorghum) Tripsacum (gamagrass) Zea mays (maize) other Zea species ( teosintes ) Maize
5822-418: The region for their claywork and pottery, especially of domestic utensils. They also obtained and worked with gold , known for its malleability and beauty. Professor Harvey Wells (1932-2009), a respected local educator and historian who taught at Colegio La Salle in Jinotega, claimed that when the Spanish colonization began in 1524, roughly 75% of the indigenous peoples of north central Nicaragua were part of
5904-401: The slaughterhouses of Managua, Chontales or Condega, who are in charge of exporting them. The distribution of domestic energy, in charge of the company Distribuidora del Norte (DISNORTE), is interconnected to the national network. Hydroelectric energy generated by Centro América Plant supplies energy for much of the country. The plant has two turbines, each with a capacity of 25 MW (subject to
5986-491: The source of the " baby corn " used as a vegetable in Asian cuisine . A fast-flowering variety named mini-maize was developed to aid scientific research, as multiple generations can be obtained in a single year. One strain called olotón has evolved a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing microbes, which provides the plant with 29%–82% of its nitrogen. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) operates
6068-415: The stalk. Maize is monoecious , with separate male and female flowers on the same plant. At the top of the stem is the tassel, an inflorescence of male flowers; their anthers release pollen, which is dispersed by wind . Like other pollen, it is an allergen , but most of it falls within a few meters of the tassel and the risk is largely restricted to farm workers. The female inflorescence, some way down
6150-425: The stem from the tassel, is first seen as a silk, a bundle of soft tubular hairs , one for the carpel in each female flower, which develops into a kernel (often called a seed. Botanically, as in all grasses, it is a fruit, fused with the seed coat to form a caryopsis ) when it is pollinated. A whole female inflorescence develops into an ear or corncob , enveloped by multiple leafy layers or husks. The ear leaf
6232-608: The term maize , and the name corn is used mainly in the United States and a handful of other English-speaking countries. In countries that primarily use the term maize , the word corn may denote any cereal crop, varying geographically with the local staple , such as wheat in England and oats in Scotland or Ireland. The usage of corn for maize started as a shortening of " Indian corn " in 18th-century North America. The historian of food Betty Fussell writes in an article on
6314-472: The total (table). China produced 22.4% of the global total. Many pests can affect maize growth and development, including invertebrates, weeds, and pathogens. Maize is susceptible to a large number of fungal, bacterial, and viral plant diseases . Those of economic importance include diseases of the leaf, smuts such as corn smut , ear rots and stalk rots. Northern corn leaf blight damages maize throughout its range, whereas banded leaf and sheath blight
6396-500: The two is largely controlled by differences in just two genes, called grassy tillers-1 ( gt1 , A0A317YEZ1 ) and teosinte branched-1 ( tb1 , Q93WI2 ). In the late 1930s, Paul Mangelsdorf suggested that domesticated maize was the result of a hybridization event between an unknown wild maize and a species of Tripsacum , a related genus; this has been refuted by modern genetic testing . In 2004, John Doebley identified Balsas teosinte, Zea mays subsp. parviglumis , native to
6478-589: The valleys of the Colombian Andes between 7000 and 6000 years ago. The earliest maize plants grew a single, small ear per plant. The Olmec and Maya cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica ; they cooked, ground and processed it through nixtamalization . By 3000 years ago, maize was central to Olmec culture, including their calendar, language, and myths. The Mapuche people of south-central Chile cultivated maize along with quinoa and potatoes in pre-Hispanic times. Before
6560-458: Was harvested by hand. This involved a large number of workers and associated social events (husking or shucking bees ). From the 1890s onward, some machinery became available to partially mechanize the processes, such as one- and two-row mechanical pickers (picking the ear, leaving the stover ) and corn binders, which are reaper-binders designed specifically for maize. The latter produce sheaves that can be shocked . By hand or mechanical picker,
6642-425: Was introduced into Western farming systems, it was welcomed for its productivity. However, a widespread problem of malnutrition soon arose wherever it had become a staple food . Indigenous Americans had learned to soak maize in alkali -water — made with ashes and lime — since at least 1200–1500 BC, creating the process of nixtamalization. They did this to liberate the corn hulls, but coincidentally it also liberated
6724-466: Was one of the 26 genetically engineered food crops grown commercially in 2016. The vast majority of this is Bt maize . Genetically modified maize has been grown since 1997 in the United States and Canada; by 2016, 92% of the US maize crop was genetically modified. As of 2011, herbicide-tolerant maize and insect-resistant maize varieties were each grown in over 20 countries. In September 2000, up to $ 50 million worth of food products were recalled due to
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