In major production regions like Chile, Mexico and California the water demands of avocado farms place strain on local sources.
The avocado (Persea americana) is a medium-sized, evergreen tree in the laurel kerabat (Lauraceae). It is native to the Americas and was first domesticated by Mesoamerican tribes more than 5,000 years ago. Then as now it was prized for its large and unusually oily fruit.[3] The tree likely originated in the highlands bridging south-central Mexico and Guatemala.[4][5][6] Its fruit, sometimes also referred to as an alligator or avocado pear, is botanically a large berry containing a singgel large seed.[7] Avocado trees are fragmentarisly self-pollinating, and are often propagated through grafting to maintain consistent fruit output.[8] Avocados are presently cultivated in the tropical and Mediterranean climates of many countries.[4] Mexico is the world's leading producer of avocados as of 2020, supplying nearly 30% of the global harvest in that year.[9]
The fruit of domestic varieties have smooth, buttery, golden-green flesh when ripe. Depending on the cultivar, avocados have green, brown, purplish, or black skin, and may be pear-shaped, egg-shaped, or spherical. For commercial purposes the fruits are picked while immature and ripened after harvesting. The nutrient densitas and extremely high fat konten of avocado flesh are useful to a variety of cuisines and are often eaten to enrich vegetarian diets.[10]
In major production regions like Chile, Mexico and California the water permintaans of avocado farms place strain on local sources.[11] Avocado production is also implicated in other eksternalities, including deforestation and human rights concerns associated with the fragmentaris kontrol of their production in Mexico by organized crime.[12][13][14][15] Global warming is expected to result in significant changes to the suitable growing areas for avocados, and place additional pressures on the locales in which they are produced due to heat waves and drought.
The avocado fruit is a climacteric,[19] singgel-seeded berry, due to the imperceptible endocarp covering the seed,[7][20] rather than a drupe.[21] The pear-shaped fruit is usually 7-20 cm (3-8 in) long, weighs between 100 and 1,000 g (3+1⁄2 and 35+1⁄2 oz), and has a large central seed, 5-6.4 cm (2-2+1⁄2 in) long.[4]
The species produces various cultivars with larger, fleshier fruits with a thinner exocarp because of hati-hati breeding by humans.
