TITLE:
Agroclimatic Suitability of Hylocereus undatus (Haw.) Britton & Rose in the Yucatan Peninsula
AUTHORS:
Genovevo Ramírez-Jaramillo, Jorge Humberto Ramírez-Silva, Wilson Ildelfonso Avilés-Baeza, Mónica Guadalupe Lozano-Contreras
KEYWORDS:
Dragon Fruit, Regionalization, Geographic Information System
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.12 No.11,
November
6,
2025
ABSTRACT: Hylocereus undatus, also known as dragon fruit, is a crop of growing interest in the Yucatan Peninsula due to its nutritional value, demand in national and international markets, and ability to adapt to seasonal conditions. However, the orderly expansion of its cultivation requires identifying the areas with the greatest productive potential, considering the agroecological factors that determine its development. The objective of this study was to identify the areas with the best agroecological conditions for the development of dragon fruit cultivation under seasonal conditions and to identify areas of high and medium potential in the Yucatan Peninsula. The first step is to consider agroecological zoning to determine where the areas of high and medium potential, the subject of this study, are located. To locate them, climate, digital elevation, and soil databases were used, which were processed in the QGIS Biatowiza 3.22 Geographic Information System with a free license through intersections and map algebra, using as initial information the optimal agroecological requirements of the crop, per cycle, to develop under seasonal conditions. Based on the methodology used, it was determined that in the Yucatan Peninsula, there are more than 159,396 hectares of high potential for dragon fruit cultivation under seasonal conditions and more than 1,058,193 hectares of medium potential.